NGC 6404 and 6583 VI photometry

So far these clusters have never been studied, and we provide for the first time estimates of their fundamental parameters, namely, radial extent, age, distance and reddening. We find that the radius of NGC 6404 is 2.0-arcmin, as previously proposed, while the radius of NGC 6583 is 1.0 arcmin, significantly lower than previous estimates.

Both clusters turn out to be of intermediate age (0.5-1.0Gyr old), and located inside the solar ring, at a Galactocentric distance of about 6.5kpc. These results make these objects very interesting targets for spectroscopic follow-up to measure their metallicity. In fact, they might allow us to enlarge by more than 1 kpc the baseline of the radial abundance gradient in the Galactic disc towards the Galactic Centre direction.