We present a new UBVI CCD photometry of the intermediate-age open cluster NGC 2420. Our photometry covers a field of 7′9×7.′7 7′9×7.′7 of the sky centered on the cluster. We determined the reddening and distance to the cluster by the main sequence fitting as E(B−V)=0.05±0.02 E(B−V)=0.05±0.02 and (m−M)o=11.9±0.1 (m−M)o=11.9±0.1 , along with the age of \~2 \~2 Gyr by fitting the Padova isochrones to the observed color-magnitude diagrams of the cluster. The fraction of binaries is found to be 44±5% 44±5% and they are likely to locate in the central region of the cluster. The spatial distributions of the binaries and the variation of the cluster luminosity functions along the radius suggest mass segregations due to the dynamical evolution of the cluster.

As a continuing effort to develop an automatic control system for small telescope, we developed the software for telescope control and CCD observations under DOS operating system. For accurate pointing of the telescope in short amount of time, we modelled the angular speed of the telescope by aquadratic function of time (constant acceleration) for the first 15 second and then linear function of time (zero acceleration) aftwewards. By changing the telescope speed from 'slew' to 'fine' before the telescope reaches the desired position, we could achieve the accuracy of a few arcsecond. The CCD control software was written for model CCD-10 of CCD Technology. This CCD can be used for guiding purposes. We also conducted the study for remote control of the telescope using telephone line. Although it cannot be used for real observations at the present form, we succeded in remotely pointing the telescope to desired direction. As faster communication technologies become widely available, simple observations can be made remotely in the near future. Finally we report some observational results made with the present control system.

We have built a near-infrared imaging camera with a PtSi array detector manufactured by the Mitsubishi Company. The PtSi detector is sensitive in the wavelength range 1 to 5μm 5μm . Quantum efficiency of PtSi is much lower than that of InSb and HgCdTe types. However, the PtSi array has advantages over the latter ones: (i)The read-out noise is very low; (ii)the characteristics of the array elements arc uniform and stable; (iii)it is not difficult to make a large PtSi array; and (iv) consequently the price is affordably low. The array used consists of 512×512 512×512 pixels and its size is 10.2mm×13.3mm 10.2mm×13.3mm . The filter wheel of the camera is equipped with J, H, K filters, and an aluminum plate for measuring the dark noise. The dewar is cooled with liquid nitrogen. We have adopted a method of installing the clock pattern and the observing softwares in the RAM, which Gill he easily used for other systems. We have developed a software with a pull-down menu for operating the camera and data acquisition. The camera has been tested by observing δ δ Orionis.