Mel 66 CCD photometry

The V,(b-y) color-magnitude diagram of this metal-deficient, old disk cluster confirms the anomalous features found in photographic BV studies and extends the main sequence to V=20. The main sequence exhibits a (b-y) color range significantly larger than expected from photometric errors alone; the (b-y) colors are correlated with Hbeta implying that the dispersion is real and is not the result of variable reddening across the cluster.

The m1 indices for the turnoff stars imply a spread in [Fe/H] too small to explain the color range. Though the subgiant region is poorly defined, the region above the turnoff in the Hertzsprung gap is richly populated by a group of "yellow stragglers" whose membership is confirmed by radial star counts and radial velocities. The giant branch is richly populated but shows a smaller spread in color at a given V than one would expect from the turnoff region.