Radial velocities and iron abundances of field RR Lyraes. I.^*

¹ IUE Observatory, P.O. Box 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain
² McDonald Observatory, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, U.S.A.

Corresponding author: Send offprint request to: J.  Fernley; e-mail: jaf@vilspa.esa.es

Received: 13 September 1996
Accepted: 15 January 1997

Abstract

We present systemic velocities and iron abundances for 56 RR Lyraes, the majority of which have been observed by the HIPPARCOS satellite. Comparison between our systemic velocities and previous values identifies several binary candidates only one of which, TU UMa, was previously suspected of being a binary. , spectra of the unusual RR Lyrae BB Vir show no evidence of line doubling and hence do not support the recent claims that this star may have a Blue Horizontal Branch . Comparison between our abundances and previous determinations shows reasonable agreement except with the recent work of Layden (1994) where we find systematic differences. Several of the stars included on the observing list as RR Lyraes are shown to be mis-classified. Of particular interest are the stars V363 Cas and AT And which, by analogy with XZ Cet, may be anomalous Cepheids.