UBVRI imaging photometry of the open cluster Cr 272 ^*,**

¹ Observatorio Astronómico de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, 1900 La Plata and PROFOEG-CONICET, Argentina
² University of Toronto Southern Observatory, Las Campanas, Casilla 601, Chile

Received: 10 January 1996
Accepted: 31 October 1996

Abstract

We present an extensive CCD UBVRI (Cousins system) photometric survey in the region of the open cluster Collinder 272. Our data analysis confirms that the cluster is situated in the outer border of Becker's inner arm -II, at a distance pc and probably related to the neighbor cluster Hogg 16. There is no highly evolved stars in the cluster upper sequence and our age estimate based upon isochrones from models computed with mass loss and overshooting, and other methods, indicates a mean age of 13 Myr. A statistical method based on the removal of field stars was used to determine the luminosity function and the initial mass function of the cluster. The cluster initial mass function is characterized by a slope .