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A spectroscopic study of field BHB star candidates
New spectroscopic observations are presented for a sample of thirty-oneblue horizontal branch (BHB) star candidates that are sufficientlynearby to have reliable proper motions. Comments are given on a furthertwenty-five stars that have previously been suggested as BHB starcandidates but which were not included in our sample. Moderatelyhigh-resolution spectra (lambda /Delta lambda ~ 15 000) of twenty fiveof our program stars were taken with the coudé feed spectrographat Kitt Peak. Twelve of the program stars were also observed with theCAT spectrograph at ESO. Six of these program stars were observed fromboth hemispheres. IUE low-resolution spectra are available for most ofour candidates and were used, in addition to other methods, in thedetermination of their Teff and reddening. A compilation ofthe visual photometry for these stars (including new photometry obtainedat Kitt Peak) is also given. Abundances were obtained from these spectrausing models computed by Castelli with an updated version of the ATLAS9code (Kurucz 1993a). All thirty one candidates are halo stars. Of these,twenty eight are classified as BHB stars because: [(1)]they lie close tothe ZAHB (in a similar position to the BHB stars in globular clusters)in the Teff versus log g plot. For all but one of thesestars, far-UV data were available which were consistent with other data(Strömgren photometry, energy distributions, Hγ profiles) forderiving Teff and log g. [(2)]they have a distribution of kms-1i (<=40 km s-1) that is similar to thatfound for the BHB in globular clusters. Peterson et al. (1995) and Cohen& McCarthy (1997) have shown that the BHB stars in the globularclusters M13 and M92 have a higher km s-1i (<= 40 kms-1) than those in M3 and NGC 288 (<=20 kms-1). The mean deprojected rotational velocity (/line{v}) wascalculated for both the two globular clusters and the nearby BHB starsamples. A comparison of these suggests that both globular cluster kms-1i types are present in our nearby sample. No obvious trendis seen between km s-1i and either (B-V)o or [Fe/H].[(3)]they have -0.99>=[Fe/H]>=-2.95 (mean [Fe/H] -1.67; dispersion0.42 dex), which is similar to that found for field halo RR Lyrae andred HB stars. These local halo field stars appear (on average) to bemore metal-poor than the halo globular clusters. The local sample of redgiant stars given by Chiba & Yoshii (1998) contains a greaterfraction of metal-poor stars than either our halo samples or the haloglobular clusters. The stars in our sample that have a Teffthat exceeds about 8 500 K show the He i (lambda 4471) line with astrength that corresponds to the solar helium abundance. [(4)]they showa similar enhancement of the alpha -elements (< [Mg/Fe]right > =+0.43+/-0.04 and also < [Ti/Fe]right > = +0.44+/-0.02) to thatfound for other halo field stars of similar metallicity. Based onobservations obtained at KPNO, operated by the Association ofUniversities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with theNational Science Foundation, and the European Southern Observatory,Chile. Tables 4 and 5 are only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Cassiopeia |
| Right ascension: | 00h26m12.96s |
| Declination: | +49°23'21.4" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 8.411 |
| Distance: | 285.714 parsecs |
| Proper motion RA: | -10 |
| Proper motion Dec: | -9.7 |
| B-T magnitude: | 8.523 |
| V-T magnitude: | 8.421 |
Catalogs and designations:
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