... Catalogue

Tables 2-4 are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/416/917

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... clusters

Confirmation of the classification is usually obtained by spectroscopic measures or by resolving the object into stars (see, e.g., Federici et al. 1990; Racine & Harris 1992; Racine 1991; Federici et al. 1993; Huchra et al. 1991; Barmby et al. 2000).

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... controversial

Controversial objects are those that have been classified as "confirmed globulars'' by some authors and as "confirmed galaxies'' or stars by others.

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... galaxies

The reported number of MC objects actually identified in the 2MASS databases depends on the considered passband. For example the total number of confirmed and candidate clusters who have a couterpart in 2MASS are 693 in J, 675 in H and 620 in K; the number of objects who lacked any previous IR photometry are 529, 637 and 463 if we consider the J, H and K passband, respectively. For brevity and to avoid confusion, all over the paper we report only the numbers referring to the J band measures. The corresponding numbers in the other passbands are similar, the exact numbers can be obtained by inspecting the catalogues presented in Tables 2, 3 and 4.

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