Photometric study of the young open cluster NGC 3293

Deep and extensive CCD photometric observations at UBV(RI)cHα were carried out in the area of the open cluster NGC 3293. The new data set allows to see the entire cluster sequence down to Mv ≈ +4.5, revealing that stars with Mv < -2 are evolving off the main sequence; stars with -2 < Mv < +2 are located on the main sequence and stars with Mv > +2 are placed above it. According to our analysis, the cluster distance is d = 2750 ± 250 pc (V0 - Mv = 12.2 ± 0.2) and its nuclear age is 8 ± 1 Myr. NGC 3293 contains an important fraction of pre-main sequence (PMS) stars distributed along a parallel band to the ZAMS with masses from 1 to 2.5 M⊙ and a mean contraction age of 10 Myr. This last value does not differ too much from the nuclear age estimate. If we take into account the many factors that may affect the PMS star positions on the colour-magnitude diagram, both ages can be perfectly reconciled. The star formation rate, on the other hand, suggests that NGC 3293 stars formed surely in one single event, therefore favouring a coeval process of star formation. Using the Hα data, we detected nineteen stars with signs of Hα emission in the region of NGC 3293, another indication that the star formation process is still active in the region. The computed initial mass function for the cluster has a slope of x = 1.2 ± 0.2. a bit flatter than the typical slope for field stars and similar to the values found for other young open clusters.