THE LARGE MAGELLANIC-CLOUD CLUSTER NGC-2214

Johnson BV CCD observations have been made of the young Large Magellan ic Cloud cluster NGC 2214 and a nearby field using the Angle-Australia n Telescope. It has been suggested in the literature that this ellipti cal cluster is actually two clusters in the process of merging. No evi dence is found from profile fitting or the colour-magnitude diagrams t o support this contention. Completeness factors are estimated for the CCD frames. These values are used in conjunction with luminosity funct ions to estimate the initial mass function (IMF) for NGC 2214. A power law is assumed for the IMF, with a good fit being found for the expon ent (1 + x) = 2.01 +/- 0.09. There is some indication that the low-mas s end (less than or similar to 3 M.) has a lower gradient than the hig h-mass end of the derived IMF This value is in reasonable agreement wi th literature values for other Magellanic IMFs, and not substantially different from those of the poorly determined Galactic IMFs, suggestin g the possibility of a 'universal' IMF over the Magellanic Clouds and our Galaxy in the mass range similar to 1 to similar to 10 M..