We present the first results of a survey of blue horizontal branch ( BHB ) stars in the Galactic bulge .
In this exploratory study , candidates with 15 \leq V \leq 17.5 covering a wide range in B - V \mkern - 5.0 mu color were selected from CTIO Schmidt UBV photometry .
Blue spectra were recorded at 2.4 { \AA } \mkern - 5.0 mu FWHM resolution for 164 stars in a 1.3 sq .
dg .
field \sim 7.5 { } ^ { \circ } \mkern - 5.0 mu from the Galactic center .
Radial velocities were measured for all stars .
For stars with strong Balmer lines , we devised and applied a spectroscopic technique to determine stellar temperature T _ { { eff } } \mkern - 5.0 mu , gravity \log g \mkern - 5.0 mu , and metallicity [ Fe/H ] independent of reddening .
The reddening and distance to each star were then found from UBV photometry .
Reddening proved highly variable , with E ( B - V ) \mkern - 5.0 mu ranging from 0.0 to 0.55 around a mean of 0.28 .
The B - V \mkern - 5.0 mu colors of cool HB stars of solar metallicity reddenened by E ( B - V ) \mkern - 5.0 mu \geq 0.3 overlap those of foreground main-sequence stars , but the U - B \mkern - 5.0 mu vs . B - V \mkern - 5.0 mu diagram distinguishes these groups until E ( B - V ) \mkern - 5.0 mu > 0.5 .

Forty-seven BHB candidates were identified with T _ { { eff } } \mkern - 5.0 mu \geq 7250 { K } \mkern - 5.0 mu .
Seven have the gravities of Population { \textsc { i } } \mkern - 5.0 mu stars , three are ambiguous , and 37 are HB stars , including perhaps a dozen RR Lyraes .
The unambiguous BHB stars are all cooler than 9000 K. They span a wide metallicity range , from solar to 1/300 solar .
The warmer BHB ’ s are more metal-poor and loosely concentrated towards the Galactic center , while the cooler ones are of somewhat higher metallicity and are situated closer to the center .
We detect two cool solar-metallicity HB stars in the bulge of our own Galaxy , the first such stars known .
Still elusive are their fainter hot counterparts , the metal-rich sdB/O stars strong in ultraviolet light .