  The X-ray data around the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) of the ROSAT All Sky
Survey have been used to construct a contiguous area survey consisting of a
sample of 445 individual X-ray sources above a flux of ~2x10^-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1
in the 0.5-2.0 keV energy band. The NEP survey is centered at RA (2000) = 18h
00m, DEC(2000) = +66deg 33arcmin and covers a region of 80.7 sq. deg at a
moderate Galactic latitude of b = 29.8deg. Hence, the NEP survey is as deep and
covers a comparable solid angle to the ROSAT serendipitous surveys, but is also
contiguous. We have identified 99.6% of the sources and determined redshifts
for the extragalactic objects. In this paper we present the optical
identifications of the NEP catalog of X-ray sources including basic X-ray data
and properties of the sources. We also describe with some detail the optical
identification procedure. The classification of the optical counterparts to the
NEP sources is very similar to that of previous surveys, in particular the
Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS). The main constituents of
the catalog are active galactic nuclei (~49%), either type 1 or type 2
according to the broadness of their permitted emission lines. Stellar
counterparts are the second most common identification class (~34%). Clusters
and groups of galaxies comprise 14%, and BL Lacertae objects 2%. One non-AGN
galaxy, and one planetary nebula have also been found. The NEP catalog of X-ray
sources is a homogeneous sample of astronomical objects featuring complete
optical identification.

Astrophysics