Metal Abundances in Extremely Distant Galactic Old Open Clusters. II. Berkeley 22 and Berkeley 66

We report on high-resolution spectroscopy of four giant stars in the Galactic old open clusters Berkeley 22 and Berkeley 66 obtained with HIRES at the Keck telescope. We find that [Fe/H] = -0.32 ± 0.19 and -0.48 ± 0.24 for Be 22 and Be 66, respectively. Based on these data, we first revise the fundamental parameters of the clusters and then discuss them in the context of the Galactic disk radial abundance gradient. We found that both clusters nicely obey the most updated estimate of the slope of the gradient from the work of Friel and coworkers and are genuine Galactic disk objects. © 2005. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.