The "metal poor" stars in the halo region of our Milky Way Galaxy reflect more closely than any known others the chemical abundance history of matter created at early epochs in the history of the Universe. Using a new echelle-CCD (Charged Coupled Device detector) at McDonald Observatory, the Principal Investigator (PI) plans a two-year program that will complete a survey of "heavy neutron capture" abundances (elements Ba through Yb in the periodic table) among halo stars which was supported by an earlier NSF award to him. He will then undertake a survey of the abundances of all accessible "ultrametal poor" stars. This program exploits the recent detector developments which have permitted the PI to survey fainter and fainter stars in the halo and thereby push our knowledge of the Galaxy's chemical history back to the first generation of stars, formed perhaps within a billion years of the Big Bang.
