Uncloaking Globular Clusters in the Inner Galaxy

Abstract

Extensive photometric studies of the globular clusters located toward the center of the Milky Way have been historically neglected. The presence of patchy differential reddening in front of these clusters has proven to be a significant obstacle to their detailed study. We present here a well defined and reasonably homogeneous photometric database for 25 of the brightest Galactic globular clusters located in the direction of the inner Galaxy. These data were obtained in the B, V, and I bands using the Magellan 6.5 m Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. A new technique is extensively used in this paper to map the differential reddening in the individual cluster fields, and to produce cleaner, dereddened color-magnitude diagrams for all the clusters in the database. Subsequent papers will detail the astrophysical analysis of the cluster populations, and the properties of the obscuring material along the clusters' lines of sight.

Based partly on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. This paper also includes data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.