Comparing photometric and trigonometric distance scales in the Galaxy with Gaia DR2

The average trigonometric parallaxes, determined according to Gaia DR2 for 143 open clusters at distances up to 8.5 kpc, are compared with the distances to the same clusters, determined in the framework of the MWSC project by the method of isochrone fitting. It is shown that the agreement between the trigonometric and photometric distance scales for clusters does not depend on the distance. A systematic underestimation of Gaia DR2 average parallaxes for clusters relative to photometric parallaxes of -0.052 ± 0.013 mas was found.