We measured the near-infrared orbital light curve of the black hole binary A0620–00 in 1995 and 1996 .
The light curves show an asymmetric , double-humped modulation with extra emission in the peak at orbital phase 0.75 .
There were no significant changes in the shape of the light curve over the one-year observation period .
There were no sharp dips in the light curves nor reversals of the asymmetry between the two peaks as seen in earlier observations .
The light curves are well fit by models incorporating ellipsoidal variations from the mass-losing K-type star plus a beamed bright spot on the accretion disk around the compact star .
The long-term stability of the light curve shape rules out superhumps and star spots as sources of asymmetry when we observed A0620–00 .
The ellipsoidal variations yield a lower limit i \geq 38 \arcdeg on the orbital inclination .
The light curves show no eclipse features , which places an upper limit i \leq 75 \arcdeg .
This range of inclinations constrains the mass of the compact object to 3.3 < M _ { 1 } < 13.6 M _ { \odot } .
The light curves do not further constrain the orbital inclination because the contribution of the accretion disk to the observed flux is unknown .
We argue that a previous attempt to measure the near-infrared flux from the accretion disk using the dilution of the ^ { 12 } CO ( 2,0 ) bandhead in the spectrum of the K star is not reliable because the band strength depends strongly on surface gravity .