Near-infrared Photometry of the Open Cluster NGC 2420
Abstract
Open clusters have been used in numerous studies of stellar formation and evolution and have provided important constraints on theoretical stellar models. In this study, we carried out deep near-infrared imaging (I, J, H and Ks bands) with the 1024×1024 CFHT-IR camera at the Cassegrain focus of the Canada-France-Hawaii 3.6 m telescope of two fields in the relatively old open cluster, NGC 2420. This cluster was selected due to its relatively low metallicity, [Fe/H] ∼ -0.5, and rather high Galactic latitude (for an open cluster), b ≈ 20°, reducing the effects of reddening as well as reducing the extent of contamination by non-members of the cluster. The empirical data were calibrated using 2MASS and Stetson standards in the field. Non-cluster stars were removed using a field-cluster decontamination algorithm. By fitting available theoretical isochrones to the observed color-magnitude diagrams, we have been able to estimate the age, metallicity and distance of the cluster which are compared to previous studies.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #227
- Pub Date:
- January 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AAS...22734519H