SIMBAD references

We present results obtained from photometric and spectroscopic CCD observations of 16 previously little-studied objects, cataloged as galactic open cluster candidates. All observations were carried out at the Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito (CASLEO, Argentina) and at Las Campanas Observatory (Chile). A detailed analysis of the observed color-magnitude diagrams [V vs (B-V), V vs V-I)] and density histograms of the 16 objects–mostly located in the direction to the galactic center–demonstrate that they are genuine open clusters. We also present new photometric CCD VI Johnson-Cousins data of 10 template open clusters with well-known fundamental parameters.