THE METALLICITY GRADIENT OF THE GALACTIC BULGE

We determine metallicities for a large number of K giants at 1.5-1.7 k pc from the Galactic Centre, based on medium resolution spectra. We st udy the bulge metallicity gradient by comparing the present spectrosco pic observations with previous metallicity determinations at Baade's w indow (BW), at 0.5 kpc from the Galactic Centre. It is confirmed that: (1) there is a metallicity gradient within the inner 2 kpc of the Gal axy; (2) at any given distance from the Galactic Centre, there is a la rge spread in metal abundances.