RGU photometry of the galactic star cluster NGC 3247.

An RGU photometry has been carried out on plates taken at the Southerland Station of the South Africa Observatory and at the Cerro Tololo Curtis Schmidt. The discussion of the photometric data leads to a true distance modulus of 10.83 mag. (1420 pc). Age and probable membership, as well as other cluster parameters are discussed. NGC 3247 is too old to be a spiral indicator. The catalogue is given in table 1. In the surroundings of the cluster there seems to be a local group of late-type giants at a distance of 1.7 kpc as it is the case with IC 2581 which is only 0.3 away from NOC 3247. Key words: star clusters - galactic structure