Stars of very low metal abundance. I

The filter restricts the bandpass to the region around the H and K lines of CaII; the metal-poor candidates are those stars with weak or absent H and K. Slit spectra (1 A resolution) of some 450 candidates are used to measure equivalent widths of the CaII K line and Balmer features.

A calibration of the K-line strength for giants in the metal-poor globular cluster NGC 6397 and field dwarfs and giants of known metallicity is used to identify survey candidates with metal abundance [Fe/H]<=-2.0; a list of 134 such stars is presented. UBV photometry is used to distinguish between two groups of metal-poor stars: a group with objects near the main-sequence turnoff, on the subgiant branch, and on the giant branch; and a second group with objects on the red horizontal branch (RHB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB).