Multicolour CCD photometry of old open clusters:^*

King 5 and Be 20

State Observatory, Manora Peak, Naini Tal - 263 129, India e-mail: pandey, vijay@upso.ernet.in

Corresponding author: A. K. Durgapal, alok@upso.ernet.in

Received: 11 May 2000
Accepted: 6 February 2001

Abstract

We present multicolour CCD photometry for two poorly studied open clusters (King 5 and Be 20). Photometry for a field near King 5 was also carried out to estimate the contamination by field stars. The colour magnitude diagrams (CMD) of the clusters show a well defined main sequence extending to the limit of the photometry, mag. The reddening for King 5, estimated from the colour-colour diagram, is ~0.82, whereas that for Be 20 as estimated by comparing theoretical main-sequence (MS) with the observed MS is 0.10. The morphology of the CMDs indicates that these clusters are old. The CMD of Be 20 shows a globular cluster-like horizontal branch. In case of King 5 the comparison of observational CMDs with the standard isochrones of VandenBerg ([CITE]) indicates an apparent discrepancy between the shape of the turnoff and isochrones. The CMDs of King 5 seem to be better understood in terms of stellar models with convective overshoot. The comparison of the CMDs with the stellar models by Bertelli et al. ([CITE]) with convective overshoot produces a good fit for a metallicity and an age = 1 Gyr for King 5 and 5 Gyr for Be 20. An apparent distance modulus and 15.1 has been estimated for King 5 and Be 20 respectively. They correspond to a distance of pc and 9026 ± 480 pc, respectively. The radial density distribution in King 5 indicates that there is an excess of low mass stars in the outer region of the cluster, whereas the density distribution in Be 20 shows a good fit with the empirical King ([CITE]) model. For both clusters, observations have also been carried out to search for variable stars.