Keywords :
astrometry - color-magnitude diagrams - open clusters and associations individual (NGC 2451A)
Abstract:We provide new evidence that NGC 2451A is undoubtedly a young open cluster, although sparsely populated. New cluster membership has been derived from relative proper motions of 5868 stars. In total, 136 stars down to V~15 5 have membership probability P{mu}>=2%. New CCD BV photometry indicates that about 70 stars are indeed main-sequence stars of NGC 2451A. This is also supported by our measurements of radial velocities. A total of 34 very likely cluster members yield a mean heliocentric radial velocity for NGC 2451A equal to +22.9km/s. The high quality of our BV photometry, a confirmation of cluster membership from proper motions and radial velocities, and a recently obtained metallicity estimate for several cluster stars allow us to
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