A photometric study of the intermediate age open cluster King 5^*

¹ Dipartimento di Astronomia, Universitá di Padova, vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
² Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, vicolo Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy

Send offprint request to: G. Carraro, e-mail: carraro@pd.astro.it

Received: 30 June 1999
Accepted: 19 November 1999

Abstract


We report on near IR (J and K bands) observations of an region centered on the poorly studied open cluster King 5, for which only optical photometry existed. Photometry of two nearby fields is also reported. We found that the cluster is of moderate age (1.0 Gyr old), intermediate in age between the Hyades and NGC 752. Combining optical and IR photometry we obtain estimates for the cluster parameters. The color excesses , and are 0.50, 1.10 and 2.45, respectively. The true distance modulus turns out to be . As a consequence, King 5 is 1.9 kpc far from the Sun.