On the Color Excesses of Globular Clusters

Abstract

The interstellar reddening of globular clusters of the Galaxy is still an important unresolved problem, especially for metal-rich objects that are found usually at low galactic latitudes in the general direction of the galactic center. Their color excesses are needed in order to correct their color-magnitude diagrams and to determine their intrinsic integrated color indices. For this we need some method which is not related to measures of the cluster stars. One such method is to use foreground field stars in the direction of the globular cluster to measure the interstellar reddening. Because most of the globular clusters lie outside the galactic plane, we need information about the reddening in all the layer of absorbing dust in different directions. This information can be obtained by investigating stars which are at different distances from the Sun up to the edge of the absorbing dust layer. On the other hand, these stars should be as close as possible to the position of the globular cluster to avoid possible variations in the interstellar reddening in the area of the cluster.