UBV photometry of the 30 Dor region

These images of 30 Doradus are the first "deep" HST exposures that have appropriate photometric calibration. The B band (F439W) image, which shows R136a at the center of the PC6 CCD chip, reveals over 200 stars within 3" of the center of R136a, and over 800 stars in a 35"x35" area.

We used Malumuth et al.'s [The First Year of HST Observations, edited by A. L. Kinney and J. C. Blades (ST ScI, Baltimore) (1991)] PSF-fitting method to measure the magnitudes of all stars on the PC6 chip. These new B magnitudes, along with U and V magnitudes from archival PC images, yield a luminosity function, mass density profile, and initial mass function of the 30 Doradus ionizing cluster. The mass distribution is well fit by a King model with a core radius, Rc=0.96" (0.24pc), a tidal radius, Rt=110" (28pc), and a total mass, M=16800M_{sun}_.