Homogeneous Photometry. V. The Globular Cluster NGC 4147

New BVRI broadband photometry and astrometry are presented for the globular cluster NGC 4147, based upon measurements derived from 524 ground-based CCD images mostly either donated by colleagues or retrieved from public archives. We have also reanalyzed five exposures of the cluster obtained with WFPC2 on the Hubble Space Telescope in the F439W and F555W (B and V) filters. We present calibrated color-magnitude and color-color diagrams. Analysis of the color-magnitude diagram reveals morphological properties generally consistent with published metal-abundance estimates for the cluster, and an age typical of other Galactic globular clusters of similar metallicity. We have also redetermined the periods and mean magnitudes for the RR Lyrae variables, including a new c-type variable reported here for the first time. Our data do not show clear evidence for photometric variability in candidate V18, recently reported by Arellano Ferro et al. (2004, Rev. Mex. A&A, 40, 209). These observations also support the nonvariable status of candidates V5, V9, and V15. The union of our light-curve data with those of Newburn (1957, AJ, 62, 197), Mannino (1957, Mem. Soc. Astron. Italiana, 28, 285), and Arellano Ferro et al. (op. cit.) permits the derivation of significantly improved periods. The mean periods and the Bailey period-amplitude diagrams support the classification of the cluster as Oosterhoff I, despite its predominantly blue horizontal branch. The number ratio of c- to ab-type RR Lyrae stars, on the other hand, is unusually high for an Oosterhoff I cluster. The calibrated results have been made available through the first author's Web site.

Based in part on archival observations made with ESO telescopes at the La Silla and Paranal Observatory under program ID 60.A-9050(A).

This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.