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M. P. McCumber (University of Arizona), D. R. Garnett (Steward Observatory)
We have used the Wide Field/Planetary Camera II on the Hubble Space Telescope to image a star field in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud, near the H II region N81. The images were taken in the F336W, F547M, F675W, and F814W filters. From these data we construct color-magnitude diagrams for about 4000 stars and compare them with theoretical isochrones. In one of the CCD frames we identify an open cluster with an age of approximately 600+/-100 Myr. After statistically subtracting the cluster stars we examine the CMD for the field stars. We see both young main sequence stars and a well developed red giant branch. The brightest main sequence stars correspond to an age of at most 150 Myr. We also see a substantial number of turn-off stars with V magnitudes between 20 and 22, corresponding to an age range of 2 Gyr to 10 Gyr. There is evidence for a possible burst of star formation in this part of the SMC 2 Gyr ago, as suggested by studies of intermediate age populous clusters in the SMC. On the other hand, the distribution of stars in the 5-10 Gyr age range may be more consistent with continuous star formation over that time span. We discuss the effects of the extended depth of the SMC on the interpretation of the CMD.