2003AJ....125.3111B

We present Hubble Space Telescope VI photometry of the central region of the Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 1866, reaching magnitudes as faint as V=27. We find evidence that the cluster luminosity function shows a strong dependence on the distance from the cluster center, with a clear deficiency of low-luminosity stars in the inner region. We discuss a global cluster luminosity function as obtained from stars from all parts of the investigated region, which appears in impressive agreement with the prediction from a Salpeter mass distribution. We also revisit the use of NGC 1866 as a probe for determining the efficiency of core overshooting and conclude that a definitive answer to this question is not possible from this cluster.