MULTICOLOR CCD PHOTOMETRY OF THE SMC CLUSTER KRON-3

We present BVRI CCD photometry of 3149 stars in the SMC populous clust er Kron 3. Radial dependence of the horizontal branch morphology has b een revealed. Contrary to Rich et al. (1984, ApJ, 286,517), we conclud e that the cluster radius is about r=6'. We estimate the cluster metal licity as [Fe/H]=-1.26 and its apparent distance modulus as (m-M)=18(m ).75. Our estimate of the cluster age, based on fitting isochrones of VandenBerg & Bell (1985, ApJs, 58, 561) to our V-(B-V) and V-(V-R) dia grams, is about 10 Gyr, the lower limit being 8 Gyr; this value is gre ater than those derived earlier, presumably partially due to the dista nce modulus values used by earlier investigators being too large. Our age estimate is not far from the upper value from Rich et al. (C) 1996 American Astronomical Society.