We present UBVRI photometry for the young open cluster NGC 2362 .
From analysis of the appropriate color-color and color-magnitude diagrams we derive the fundamental parameters of the NGC 2362 cluster to be : age = 5 ^ { +1 } _ { -2 } Myr , distance = 1480 pc , E ( B - V ) = 0.10 mag .
The cluster age was independently determined for both high mass ( 2.1 - 36 M _ { \sun } ) and low mass ( 0.7 - 1.2 M _ { \sun } ) stars with excellent agreement between the ages derived using post-main sequence ( 8 ) and pre-main sequence ( 3 ) evolutionary tracks for the high and low mass stars respectively .
Analysis of this cluster ’ s color-magnitude diagram reveals a well defined pre-main sequence ( covering \Delta V \sim 9 magnitudes in V and extending from early A stars to near the hydrogen burning limit ) which makes this cluster an ideal laboratory for pre-main sequence evolution studies .