THE ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL    VOLUME 109, NUMBER 2, PAGE 618        FEBRUARY 1995

          B,V PHOTOMETRY OF THE RR LYRAE STARS IN THE VERY METAL-POOR
                           GLOBULAR CLUSTER NGC 5053

                                JAMES M. NEMEC

 Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
                       Electronic mail: nemec@dao.nrc.ca

                                  MARIO MATEO

  Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
                  Electronic mail: mateo@astro.lsa.umich.edu

                              JAMES M. SCHOMBERT

   IPAC/JPL, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125
                     Electronic mail: js@ipac.caltech.edu


                                   ABSTRACT
    
    The RR Lyrae stars in NGC 5053 are investigated using B,V photometry
    derived from CCD frames taken on 15 nights between 1985 and 1994.
    Estimates of fundamental photometric parameters are presented for the
    ten stars, including mean B and V magnitudes, pulsation periods,
    pulsation amplitudes, <B>-<V> colors, and period change rates.  Until
    now the mean B,V magnitudes were unknown because the previous
    photographic photometry by Baade [Mitteilungen der Hamburger,
    Sternwarte, B6, n.29 (1928)], Sawyer [Pub. DDO 1, No. 18, p. 357
    (1946)], Rosino [MSAIt, 20, 3 (1949)], and Mannino [Pub. Obs. Bologna,
    8, No. 12 (1963)] is not on the Johnson system and is not readily
    transformed to that system.