1999A&AS..135..103A

We have carried out multicolor (BVRI) photometry for 3077 stars in the field of the populous cluster NGC 1978 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We find a clear discrepancy in the zero point of our V magnitudes in NGC 1978 with earlier work (Bomans et al. 1995A&A...298..427B). A large sample of horizontal-branch stars (319 objects) has been isolated. Our study of color distributions of HB stars in different parts of the cluster reveals some variations of the shape of the distributions across the cluster face. We also find some difference in CMD positions of the lower giant branch dependent upon the position in the cluster. Thus, we do not exclude the presence of two subpopulations in NGC 1978; to explain the observations, a difference in [Fe/H] by ∼0.1-0.2 between them would be sufficient.