  We develop an automated spectral synthesis technique for the estimation of
metallicities ([Fe/H]) and carbon abundances ([C/Fe]) for metal-poor stars,
including carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars, for which other methods may prove
insufficient. This technique, autoMOOG, is designed to operate on relatively
strong features visible in even low- to medium-resolution spectra, yielding
results comparable to much more telescope-intensive high-resolution studies. We
validate this method by comparison with 913 stars which have existing
high-resolution and low- to medium-resolution to medium-resolution spectra, and
that cover a wide range of stellar parameters. We find that at low
metallicities ([Fe/H] < -2.0), we successfully recover both the metallicity and
carbon abundance, where possible, with an accuracy of ~ 0.20 dex. At higher
metallicities, due to issues of continuum placement in spectral normalization
done prior to the running of autoMOOG, a general underestimate of the overall
metallicity of a star is seen, although the carbon abundance is still
successfully recovered. As a result, this method is only recommended for use on
samples of stars of known sufficiently low metallicity. For these
low-metallicity stars, however, autoMOOG performs much more consistently and
quickly than similar, existing techniques, which should allow for analyses of
large samples of metal-poor stars in the near future. Steps to improve and
correct the continuum placement difficulties are being pursued.
