BVRI photometry in NGC 2419, Pal 4, and Pal 14

Such calibration and extension of sequences is necessary to fill a calibration gap if reliable photometry from modest aperture telescopes in space (e.g., the Hubble Space Telescope) or terrestrial telescopes with apertures exceeding 4m is to be done. Sequences like the ones presented here, which cover a large range in brightness as well as color, will allow photometric calibration to be done efficiently and will also make such work less prone to systematic sources of error.

Photometry of stars in approximately 10'x10' fields around three globular clusters (NGC 2419, Pal 4, and Pal 14) are presented from data acquired over several photometric nights. In each field, several stars are measured in B, V, R, and I passbands, with standard errors in the mean less than 0.015mag from random errors, to levels fainter than V=21mag.