3. Description of the Catalogue

The Catalogue presents, as metal/hydrogen parameter, the usual logarithmic difference between the relative abundance of iron in the atmosphere of a star and the relative abundance of iron in the atmosphere of a reference star. This difference is written in the form:

Files 1 and 2 of the Catalogue contain the following columns:

1. Identifier
   Great care has been taken to choose for each star its most common designation. For field stars, the HD number was taken, when available. If not, the BD or CD or CPD number was taken, with the usual convention of declinations. For very few stars only Giclas or other names were available. For cluster stars, a great variety of names were used in the references for the same object. The Dictionary of Nomenclature of Celestial Objects (Lortet et al. 1994) was consulted, together with the SIMBAD database and the NASA-ADS service in order to adopt the most appropriate name for each star. Except for a dozen unidentified objects (designated with ``?" at the beginning of their name), the chosen identifier can be used in a SIMBAD interrogation. There is no redundancy between the list of field stars and the list of cluster stars.
   
2. Spectral type
   The spectral types come from the cross-identification of the Catalogue and the SIMBAD database. The same syntax has been used (see the SIMBAD user's guide and reference manual, chapter 15). It helps the user of the Catalogue to locate a normal star in the HR diagram, and also to recognize peculiar stars. We have not corrected the spectral types, even if in a few cases (mainly metal deficient population II stars) they disagree with the effective temperature and gravity resulting from a detailed analysis.
   
3. Object type
   This column indicates a star's peculiarity. We have adopted the same designation as in SIMBAD database, reduced to two characters (see the SIMBAD user's guide and reference manual, Appendix F). The most frequent types of peculiarities are high proper-motion stars (PM), spectroscopic binaries (SB), variable stars (V), stars in multiple systems (**), etc ...
   
4. Visual magnitude V
   The sources of the visual magnitudes in SIMBAD are various and heterogeneous. As a consequence, this value should be considered only as an indicator of brightness. For precise photometry, the users have to consult a specialised catalog, like the General Catalogue of Photometric Data (GCPD) (Hauck et al. 1990). In some cases, the magnitude indicated in this column is the B magnitude (a letter B follows the value of the magnitude in this case). Only a few faint stars do not have any visual magnitude at all.
   
5. Colour index B-V
   The colour comes from SIMBAD database.
   
6. Photometric flag
   The character ``:" indicates a large uncertainty in photometry. A letter ``D" indicates a joint magnitude in the case of binaries. A letter ``V" indicates a variable magnitude.
   
7. Effective temperature
   The value listed is that which was adopted by the author for the metallicity determination in the detailed analysis. In the previous versions of the Catalogue, we used as effective temperature parameter the quantity . We have converted of the 1991-Edition into , which is now much more widely used. In the preceding edition, the parameter was presented with two digits of precision. The conversion to retrieve has led to an inaccuracy of a few tens of degrees for cool stars, about 50 K for solar-like stars, and 100 to 200 K for hot stars. All the new determinations listed in the present edition, give directly and no correction was necessary for them.
   
8. Logarithm of gravity logg
   As for the case of , the value of listed is that which was used by the author in the spectrum analysis.
   
9. [Fe/H]
   The [Fe/H] value is given with respect to the standard star listed in Col. 11.
   
10. Note
    The following rare cases are indicated with a letter in this column:
    - S: [Fe/H] has been obtained with a spectrum of S/N lower than 50,
    - M: several values of [Fe/H] were given in the article (for example from FeI and FeII lines, or from different instruments), and we give the mean of them,
    - C: in the absence of any indication of the author, we calculated the metallicity with respect to the Sun with ,
    - T: combination of cases M and C,
    - D: combination of cases S and C.
    
11. Standard
    The reference star which was employed in the analysis.
    
12. Reference
    Bibliographical reference with respective number to be found in File 3.
    

In this Edition, as in the previous 1991-Edition, the microturbulence velocity has been omitted because not all authors use the same definition for it. People interested in the value of the microturbulence must consult individual references.

File 1 includes 4716 determinations of [Fe/H] for 2497 different stars. File 2 includes 1230 determinations of [Fe/H] for 751 stars in 84 associations, clusters or nearby galaxies.

File 3 gives the list of the 700 bibliographical references (130 more than in the previous version) sorted in chronological order. We have adopted for all the references the journal abbreviations of the NASA-ADS Abstract Service.

Several mistakes have been corrected in the previous edition and in this latest version, but the Catalogue undoubtedly still contains incorrect data and misprints. We encourage users to bring to our attention any error they find. The Catalogue is kept at the CDS and available by the usual methods. It will be updated and corrected regularly.