NGC 1883: a neglected intermediate-age open cluster located in the outskirts of the Galactic disk

Abstract

We report on $BVI$ CCD photometry of a field centered in the region of the open cluster NGC 1883 down to V=21. This cluster has never been studied insofar, and we provide for the first time estimates of its fundamental parameters, namely radial extent, age, distance and reddening. We find that the cluster has a radius of about 2.5 arcmin, and shows signatures of dynamical relaxation. NGC 1883 is located in the anti-center direction, and exhibits a reddening in the range E$(B-V)= 0.23-0.35$, depending on the metal abundance. It turns out to be of intermediate-age (1 billion years old), and quite distant for an open cluster. In fact it is located 4.8 kpc from the Sun, and more than 13 kpc from the Galactic center. This results makes NGC 1883 one of the most peripheral old open clusters, with important consequences for the trend of the metallicity with distance in the outer Galactic disk.