Proper identification of RR Lyrae stars brighter than 12.5 mag

RR Lyrae stars are of great importance for investigations of Galactic structure. However, a complete compendium of all RR-Lyraes in the solar neighbourhood with accurate classifications and coordinates does not exist to this day. Here we present a catalogue of 561 local RR-Lyrae stars (V_max ≤ 12.5 mag) according to the magnitudes given in the Combined General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) and 16 fainter ones. The Tycho2 catalogue contains ≃100 RR Lyr stars. However, many objects have inaccurate coordinates in the GCVS, the primary source of variable star information, so that a reliable cross-identification is difficult. We identified RR Lyrae from both catalogues based on an intensive literature search. In dubious cases we carried out photometry of fields to identify the variable. Mennessier & Colome (2002, A&A, 390, 173) have published a paper with Tyc2-GCVS identifications, but we found that many of their identifications are wrong.