Description
We have conducted a deep (15~<r~<23 ), 20 night survey for transiting planets in the intermediate-age open cluster M37 (NGC 2099) using the Megacam wide-field mosaic CCD camera on the 6.5m MMT. In this paper we describe the observations and data reduction procedures for the survey and analyze the stellar content and dynamical state of the cluster. By combining high-resolution spectroscopy with existing BVI_C_K_s and new gri color-magnitude diagrams, we determine the fundamental cluster parameters: t=485+/-28Myr, without overshooting (t=550+/-30Myr, with overshooting), E(B-V)=0.227+/-0.038, (m-M)_V_=11.57+/-0.13, and [M/H]=+0.045+/-0.044, which are in good agreement with, although more precise than, previous measurements. We determine the mass function down to 0.3M_{sun}_ and use this to estimate the total cluster mass of 3640+/-170M_{sun}_.
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