CaII triplet of RGB from VLT/FLAMES obs.

We demonstrate that low-resolution CaII triplet (CaT) spectroscopic estimates of the overall metallicity ([Fe/H]) of individual red giant branch (RGB) stars in two nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) agree to +/-0.1-0.2dex with detailed high-resolution spectroscopic determinations for the same stars over the range -2.5<[Fe/H]<-0.5. For this study, we used a sample of 129 stars observed in low- and high-resolution modes with VLT/FLAMES in the Sculptor and Fornax dSphs.

We also present the data-reduction steps we used in our low-resolution analysis and show that the typical accuracy of our velocity and CaT [Fe/H] measurement is ~2km/s and 0.1dex, respectively. We conclude that CaT[Fe/H] relations calibrated on globular clusters can be applied with confidence to RGB stars in composite stellar populations over the range -2.5<[Fe/H]<-0.5.