We present a new study of the variable star population in globular cluster 5 of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy , based on B and V time series photometry obtained with the MagIC camera of the 6.5 m Magellan Clay telescope and complementary HST archive data .
Light curves and accurate periodicities were obtained for 30 RR Lyrae stars and 1 SX Phoenicis variable .
The RR Lyrae sample includes 15 fundamental-mode pulsators , 13 first-overtone pulsators , 1 candidate double-mode pulsator and one RR Lyrae star with uncertain type classification .

The average and minimum periods of the ab-type RR Lyrae stars , \langle Pab \rangle = 0.590 days , P _ { ab,min } =0.53297 days and the position in the horizontal branch type–metallicity plane , indicate that the cluster has Oosterhoff-intermediate properties , basically confirming previous indications by Mackey & Gilmore ( 2003b ) , although with some differences both in the period and type classification of individual variables .

The average apparent magnitude of the Fornax 5 RR Lyrae stars is \langle V { ( RR ) } \rangle =21.35 \pm 0.02 mag ( \sigma =0.07 mag , average on 14 stars more likely belonging to the cluster , and having well sampled light curves ) .
This value leads to a true distance modulus of \mu _ { 0 } =20.76 \pm 0.07 ( d = 141.9 ^ { +4.6 } _ { -4.5 } kpc ) if we adopt for the cluster the metal abundance by Buonanno et al .
( 1998 ; [ Fe/H ] = -2.20 \pm 0.20 ) , or \mu _ { 0 } =20.66 \pm 0.07 ( d = 135.5 ^ { +4.4 } _ { -4.3 } kpc ) , if we adopt Strader et al. ’ s ( 2003 ) metal abundance ( [ Fe/H ] = -1.73 \pm 0.13 ) .