2008AJ....135.2341J

We present an analysis of high-dispersion echelle spectra of four giant stars in the 4 Gyr open cluster NGC 7142 obtained with the KPNO 4 m telescope. Abundances were determined relative to the bright, mildly metal-poor giant Arcturus. NGC 7142 is found to have a mean [Fe/H] = +0.14±0.01 (standard deviation) relative to the Sun, with an estimated uncertainty of 0.12 dex per star. Oxygen abundances, determined from the forbidden [O I] λ6300 Å feature, are slightly sub-solar, while the α-elements are slightly enhanced to ∼0.1 dex above solar. Na and Al are enhanced ∼0.2 dex relative to scaled solar abundances. These abundance patterns are similar to those reported for other open clusters in the literature, and suggest that the Galactic disk underwent rapid chemical enrichment in early phases of its evolution. Finally, comparison of these results to those found from lower-dispersion WIYN 3.5 m HYDRA spectra of the cluster stars shows them to be comparable within the errors, verifying that detailed abundance analyses of HYDRA spectra are reliable and can be directly compared to analyses of higher-dispersion data.