BVR CCD PHOTOMETRY OF THE GLOBULAR-CLUSTER NGC 1261

We present BVR photometry ot two overlapping fields in the high latitude, highly concentrated globular cluster NGC 1261, observed with a CCD camera and the 1.54 m telescope at ESO/La Silla. We compare our B V color-magnitude diagram (CMD) with that of Bolte & Marleau [PASP, 10 1, 108 8 (1989)] and find generally good agreement down to the limit of our photometry at V approximately 22.5. We have observed NGC 1261 in the R-band for the first time, and from our photometry in the three colors we adopt a distance modulus of (m - M)V = 16.00 +/- 0.23, and determine that the fits between our three-color observations and the isochrones published by VandenBerg and Bell [ApJS, 58, 561 (1985)] yield an age of 15 +/- 2 Gyr. Our derived values of interstellar reddening are consistent with E(B - V) = 0.07. The main-sequence turnoff comes at an average of V(TO) = 20.12 +/- 0. 10, with colors at B - V = 0.45 +/- 0.04, V - R = 0.25 +/- 0.02, and B - R = 0.704 +/- 0.04. Of special interest is the detailed comparison of our results, obtained with the INVENTORY code developed by Kruszewski [West & Kruszewski, Irish AJ, 15, 25 (1981)], with the results of Bolte and Marleau derived with the DAOPHOT program of Stetson [PASP, 99, 191 (1987)]. We find that the two procedures give essentially identical results down to V approximately 21.0.