R. M. Rich Abstract

The Galactic Bulge

R. M. Rich (UCLA)

Observations from Cerro Tololo have played a critical role in defining our modern description of the Galactic bulge.  I will give a historical perspective beginning from the work of Whitford, Blanco, and Frogel.  The first high- resolution spectroscopy of the bulge (McWilliam & Rich 1994) also was undertaken using the CTIO 4m telescope.  I will review results from the Bulge Radial Velocity Assay, obtained using Hydra on the CTIO 4m, which has yielded the most densely sampled radial velocity survey for the bulge (10,000 spectra) all publicly available.  BRAVA has shown that the bulge kinematics are consistent with the bulge being dominated by the bar.  New surveys extend the work of McWilliam & Rich (1994): hundreds of high resolution spectra are available, with composition studies running from the Galactic Center to fields 2 kpc from the nucleus.  I will also discuss future work, which includes the Blanco DECam Bulge Survey to obtain multicolor  photometry of high precision, over the whole of the bulge.