Analysis of integrated spectra of red star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds.

The present investigation has the objective to demonstrate that integrated spectra can play an important role in the quantitative analysis of the ages and abundances of star clusters. In particular, it is shown that by comparing the strength of the Balmer lines with the strength of a metallic feature, and guided by a sequence of model star clusters and the empirical sequence of Galactic globular clusters, one may infer age differences between fairly old clusters, for each of which a color-magnitude study to extremely faint magnitudes would be necessary to approach the main sequence. Most Magellanic Cloud clusters are younger than Galactic globulars and lack a developed horizontal branch.