Description
We present a BVI photometric and astrometric catalogue of the open cluster NGC 3960, down to limiting magnitude V~22, obtained from observations taken with the Wide Field Imager camera at the MPG/ESO 2.2m Telescope at La Silla. The photometry of all the stars detected in our field of view has been used to estimate a map of the strong differential reddening affecting this area. Our results indicate that, within the region where the cluster dominates, the E(V-I) values range from 0.21 up to 0.78, with E(V-I)=0.36 (E(B-V)=0.29) at the nominal cluster centroid position; color excesses E(V-I) up to 1 mag have been measured in the external regions of the field of view where field stars dominate. The reddening-corrected color-magnitude diagram (CMD) allows us to conclude that the cluster has an age between 0.9 and 1.4Gyr and a distance modulus of (V-M_V)_0=11.35. Based on observations made with the European Southern Observatory telescopes obtained from the the ESO/ST-ECF Science Archive Facility.
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