Effective temperatures of late-type stars : the field giants from K0 to M6.

Angular diameters from lunar occultation are combined with infrared photometry to determine effective temperatures, T/sub eff/, for K0--M6 giants. The relation between T/sub eff/ and color temperature, MK spectral type, V--K color, and I (104) --L color are derived. The principal result is a general increase in T/sub eff/ for the cooler spectral types compared to previous calibrations. Throughout the temperature range studied, we obtain excellent agreement with recent model atmosphere computations.