The distance and structure of the Coalsack. I - Photometric data The results of UBV and H-beta photometry for 284 stars of spectral typesB to F located in the area of the dark cloud Coalsack are presented.Most of the present stars are brighter than 10.0 mag and are classifiedin the MK system of Houk and Cowley (1975). For each star, the bestvalues for the extinction and distance modulus are provided, withtypical estimated errors of + or - 0.08 mag for the extinction and + or- 0.32 mag for the distance modulus. Possible misclassifications andspectral peculiarities are noted for several of the stars.
Stromgren and H-beta photometry of stars earlier than G0 in the Southern Coalsack direction Four-color and H-beta photometry have been obtained for 236 starsearlier than G0 in order to study the color excess distribution in theSouthern Coalsack direction. The beta histogram of the stars reveals arelative absence of stars in the range of A4 to A9. The (b-y)distribution for B-type stars suggests the existence of three differenttypes of stars located at different distances.
