Field horizontal-branch stars in the Galaxy

The stars are distributed over 8225 square degrees of the southern sky, at |b|>~30{deg}. The average distance of the sample, assuming that they are all FHB stars, is 9.8kpc, and distances of up to ~30kpc are reached.

Moderate-resolution spectroscopic follow-up observations and $UBV$ photometry of 125 test sample stars demonstrate that the contamination of the full candidate sample with main-sequence A-type stars is <16%, while it would be up to 50% in a flux-limited sample at high galactic latitudes. Hence more than ~6800 of our FHB candidates are expected to be genuine FHB stars. The candidates are being used as distance probes for high-velocity clouds and for studies of the structure and kinematics of the Galactic halo.