Spectroscopy of 6 LMC RR Lyrae and 3 SMC RR Lyrae

Using the MagE echelle spectrograph at the 6.5m Magellan telescopes, we obtain medium resolution (R~2000-6000) spectra of six RR Lyrae stars in the LMC and three RR Lyrae stars in the SMC. These stars were chosen because their previously determined photometric metallicities were among the lowest metallicities found for stars belonging to the old populations in the Magellanic Clouds.

We find the spectroscopic metallicities of these stars to be as low as [Fe/H]_spec_=-2.7dex, the lowest metallicity yet measured for any star in the Magellanic Clouds. We confirm that for metal-poor stars, the photometric metallicities from the Fourier decomposition of the light curves are systematically too high compared to their spectroscopic counterparts. However, for even more metal-poor stars below [Fe/H]_phot_<-2.8dex this trend is reversed and the spectroscopic metallicities are systematically higher than the photometric estimates.