DEEP CCD-BV PHOTOMETRY OF THE POORLY STUDIED OPEN CLUSTER NGC-4815

We report BV Johnson CCD photometry of 2498 stars in the region of the poorly studied open cluster NGC 4815. This object appears in the Jane s (1988) list of possible old open clusters. NGC 4815 lies in the gala ctic plane, in a region of strong absorption. The color magnitude diag ram (CMD) we derive shows that NGC 4815 has about the Hyades age (5 10 (8) yr) and a probable lower than solar metal abundance. The color exc ess E(B-V) and the distance modulus (m - M) turn out to be 0.70 and 14 .10, respectively. Accordingly a distance of 2.5 Kpc from the Sun is d erived. The luminosity function (LF) we obtain for the main sequence ( MS) stars is consistent with a Salpeter (x=1.55) initial mass function (IMF).