Star clusters are superb astrophysical laboratories containing cospatial and
coeval samples of stars with similar chemical composition. We have initiated
the Sejong Open cluster Survey (SOS) - a project dedicated to providing
homogeneous photometry of a large number of open clusters in the SAAO
Johnson-Cousins' UBVI system. To achieve our main goal, we have paid much
attention to the observation of standard stars in order to reproduce the SAAO
standard system.
Many of our targets are relatively small, sparse clusters that escaped
previous observations. As clusters are considered building blocks of the
Galactic disk, their physical properties such as the initial mass function, the
pattern of mass segregation, etc. give valuable information on the formation
and evolution of the Galactic disk. The spatial distribution of young open
clusters will be used to revise the local spiral arm structure of the Galaxy.
In addition, the homogeneous data can also be used to test stellar evolutionary
theory, especially concerning rare massive stars. In this paper we present the
target selection criteria, the observational strategy for accurate photometry,
and the adopted calibrations for data analysis such as color-color relations,
zero-age main sequence relations, Sp - Mv relations, Sp - Teff relations, Sp -
color relations, and Teff - BC relations. Finally we provide some data analysis
such as the determination of the reddening law, the membership selection
criteria, and distance determination.Comment: 21 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in J. of Korean
Astronomical Society (JKAS