1. Introduction

Our knowledge of the chemical history of the Galaxy is based primarily on metal/hydrogen determinations in stars. There are two ways of obtaining such determinations: by photometry or by spectroscopy. If photometric determinations are less time consuming and have good internal precision, spectroscopic detailed analysis is the only primary method from which photometry can be calibrated. The general approach of a spectroscopic detailed analysis is to derive metal abundances by matching equivalent widths of weak lines of an observed spectrum to those computed from a grid of model atmospheres of various effective temperatures, gravities and metallicities.

A first list of [Fe/H] determinations was published by Cayrel & Cayrel de Strobel (1966), but it was Pr. Hauck's idea to publish a ``Metal Abundance" Catalogue as an Appendix to the proceedings of the IAU symposium 72 on ``Abundance effects on classification" (Morel et al. 1976). Since then, thanks to the energy of Pr. Hauck, four editions of the Catalogue of [Fe/H] determinations have been published in the A&A Supplements (Cayrel de Strobel et al. 1980, 1981, 1985, 1992).

Since the end of 1970, spectroscopic abundance researches rely more and more on high resolution, high S/N spectra taken with solid state detectors. The increase in accuracy, thanks to an important gain in S/N ratio and a better control of systematic errors, has sometimes reached a full order of magnitude (Cayrel 1988). The number of stars subjected to detailed analysis has been increasing continuously in the successive editions, as shown in Table 1 (click here). The present version of the [Fe/H] Catalogue includes 2694 new measurements of [Fe/H], and 1571 new stars, corresponding to an increase of 83% and 94% with respect to the 1991-Edition. This strong increase in number of stars and in number of [Fe/H] determinations does not correspond only to the use of Reticons and CCDs in spectroscopy, but also to the development of powerful workstations and elaborate software for data reduction, which make it possible to analyse a large number of spectra in a reasonable time. For instance, three papers are included in this new Edition with respectivly 671 stars (McWilliam 1990), 199 stars (Balachandran 1990), 183 stars (Edvardsson et al. 1993).

Literature searches for references presenting [Fe/H] determinations from high resolution spectroscopy were made easier than in previous versions of the Catalogue thanks to the use of the NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service. The version of the Catalogue presented here should not omit any article that has been published in the principal refereed journals of astrophysics before December 1995.

 

of stars of [Fe/H]

Morel et al. 1976 515 973

Cayrel de Strobel et al. 1980 628 1109

Cayrel de Strobel et al. 1981 707 1298

Cayrel de Strobel et al. 1985 1035 1921

Cayrel de Strobel et al. 1992 1676 3252

Cayrel de Strobel et al. 1997 3247 5946

 

The main aspects of a detailed analysis are briefly reviewed in Sect. 2. The presentation of the Catalogue, which was completely revised and reformatted, is fully described in Sect. 3. Some important comments about the Catalogue are given in Sect. 4 for the input data, and in Sect. 5 for the stellar content. The conclusion is given in Sect. 6.