Proper identification of RR Lyrae stars brighter than 12.5 mag

RR Lyrae stars are of great importance for investigations of Galactic structure. However, a complete compendium of all RR-Lyraes in the solar neighbourhood with accurate classifications and coordinates does not exist to this day. Here we present a catalogue of 561 local RR-Lyrae stars (V-max <= 12.5 mag) according to the magnitudes given in the Combined General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) and 16 fainter ones. The Tycho2 catalogue contains similar or equal to 100 RR Lyr stars. However, many objects have inaccurate coordinates in the GCVS, the primary source of variable star information, so that a reliable cross-identification is difficult. We identified RR Lyrae from both catalogues based on an intensive literature search. In dubious cases we carried out photometry of fields to identify the variable. Mennessier & Colome ( 2002, A&A, 390, 173) have published a paper with Tyc2-GCVS identifications, but we found that many of their identifications are wrong.