Normalized reddened spectra (arbitrarily shifted for clarity) of late-type stars. As an example, the spectrum of a new cRSG, #40, is compared to the IRTF spectrum of HD 339034 (Rayner et al. 2009); the spectrum of the AGB #65 is compared to the IRTF spectrum of IRAS 14436-0703 (Rayner et al. 2009). The dotted-dashed lines are linear fits to the stellar continuum in the range 2.15–2.29 μm. The darker region is used for measuring an H₂O index.