BV CCD photometry in Westerlund 2

Photometric monitoring as well as spectroscopic observations of Westerlund 2 are used to search for light variability and to establish the spectral types of the early-type stars in the cluster core. The first light curves of the eclipsing binary WR 20a in B and V filters are analysed and a distance of 8kpc is inferred.

Three additional eclipsing binaries, which are probable late O or early B-type cluster members, are discovered, but none of the known early O-type stars in the cluster displays significant photometric variability above 1% at the 1-sigma level. The twelve brightest O-type stars are found to have spectral types between O3 and O6.5, significantly earlier than previously thought. The distance of the early-type stars in Westerlund 2 is established to be in excellent agreement with the distance of WR20a, indicating that WR20a actually belongs to the cluster.