A search for stars of very low metal abundance. I.

The authors report the first results from an objective-prism survey for stars of very low metal abundance. Low-metal candidates were chosen based on the weakness of the Ca II H and K lines, 3968 and 3933 Å. The faintest stars in the survey reach apparent magnitude B ≈ 16. Detailed spectroscopic and photometric observations are presented for about one-fourth of the objective-prism candidates. Based upon these data, and upon calibrating observations of field and globular cluster stars, the authors present a list of 134 stars that are likely to have metallicities [Fe/H] ≤ -2.0. Finally, they discuss the surface gravities, metallicities, CH strengths, and kinematics of the stars in the metal-poor sample.