A near-infrared and UBVRI photometric analysis of the open cluster IC 361

A detailed optical and infrared photometric analysis of the open star cluster IC 361 is given in the present paper. On studying the radial density profile, radial extent of the cluster is found to be 8.0±0.5 arcmin. The basic physical parameters of the cluster such as 𝐸(𝐵−𝑉)=0.56±0.10 mag, 𝐸(𝑉−𝐾)=1.72±0.12 mag, log(Age)=9.10±0.05, and (𝑚−𝑀)0=12.54±0.05 mag are obtained using the colour-colour and colour-magnitude diagrams. IC 361 is found to be located at a distance of 3.22±0.07 kpc. Using the archival proper motion catalogues, we estimate the mean proper motions of IC 361 as 4.97±0.17 mas yr⁻¹ and −5.80±0.18 mas yr⁻¹ in the direction of RA and Dec, respectively. A uniform distribution of mass between small scale and large scale is confirmed by MF slope of IC 361. However, the mass function slope of cluster region is found to be −1.06±0.09, which is too low compared to the Salpeter value. Our study is further showing a dynamical relaxation behaviour of the cluster IC 361. (author)