Astron. Astrophys. 362, 953-958 (2000)

5. Conclusions

From the CMD morphology, we find that the metallicity of NGC 5986 is [Fe/H] -1.6, similar to that of NGC 6752, while NGC 6712 appears to have [Fe/H] -1.0, similar to NGC 6171.

NGC 5986 has a blue extended horizontal branch, and NGC 6712 has a populated red HB together with a blue HB. Both clusters contain RR Lyrae. NGC 5986 is located at a distance from the Sun 11.2 kpc. Despite its large distance from the Sun, its direction is such that it is in the inner halo ( = 5.2 kpc).

NGC 6712 is located at = 7.9 kpc and at a galactocentric distance of = 3.6 kpc. Although for the cluster the angular separation from the center is rather large, it is compatible with being within the bulge volume. It remains to be confirmed whether it belongs to the inner halo population or a bulge intermediate metallicity component.

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000

Online publication: October 30, 2000
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