We present the analysis of high resolution spectra of six red giant stars in the old open cluster Collinder 261 .
Reddening values for individual stars , derived from the relation between colours and temperatures ( deduced from our fully spectroscopic analysis ) are consistent with previous determinations based on photometry .
For this cluster we derive an iron abundance of [ Fe/H ] = - 0.03 \pm 0.03 .
We also obtain the abundances of light metals ( O , Na and Al ) , \alpha -elements ( Mg , Si , Ca , Ti ) , elements of the Fe-group ( Sc , Cr , Mn , Co , Ni ) and the neutron-capture element Ba .
No intrinsic star-to-star scatter is present in any of these elements within our sample .
We compare our findings with previous investigations on this cluster , discussing in detail differences in analysis methods and results .