Observed Stellar Spectra As Templates For Gaia. I. The Asiago Red Clump Spectroscopic Survey At 1.22 Meter Telescope

¹ University of Padova, Department of Astronomy, vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova ( PD), Italy
² INAF-OAPD-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, via dell’Osservatorio 8, 36012 Asiago ( VI), Italy
³ INAF-OAPD-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova ( PD), Italy

Abstract

We aim to derive accurate, multi-epoch radial velocities and atmospheric parameters (T_eff, log g and [M/H]) of a large sample of Red Clump stars. We acquired data of the target stars at high signal-to-noise (S/N) and medium resolution with the Asiago B&C spectrograph. Radial velocities were obtained by applying cross-correlation against observed IAU standard stars and atmospheric parameters via χ² fit to a synthetic spectral library. Extensive tests were carried out with the multi-epoch observations of the programme stars and re-observations of the Red Clump stars that are taken from different catalogues in the literature. A total of 305 Red Clump stars (60 of them with a second epoch observation) were observed, and presented in an output catalogue that contains accurate radial velocities (σ(RV) = 2.6 km s^-1), atmospheric parameters (σ(T_eff) = 68 K, σ(log g) = 0.38 dex and σ([M/H]) = 0.17 dex), distances derived from spectrophotometry, space velocities (U,V,W) with additional astrometric and photometric data taken from literature. We aim to use our final catalogue to study the substructure and kinematics of the Galaxy.