Optimal photometry for colour-magnitude diagrams and its application to NGC 2547

We have developed the techniques required to use Naylor's optimal photometry algorithm of to create colour-magnitude diagrams with well-defined completeness functions. To achieve this we first demonstrate that the optimal extraction is insensitive to uncertainties in the measured position of the star. We then show how to correct the optimally extracted fluxes such that they correspond to those measured in a large aperture, so aperture photometry of standard stars can be used to place the measurements on a standard system. The technique simultaneously removes the effects of a position-dependent point spread function. Finally, we develop a method called 'ghosting', which calculates the completeness corrections in the absence of an accurate description of the point spread function. We apply these techniques to the young cluster NGC 2547 (=C0809-491), and use an X-ray-selected sample to find an age of 20-35 Myr and an intrinsic distance modulus of 8.00-8.15 mag. We use these isochrones to select members from our photometric surveys. Our derived luminosity function shows a well-defined Wielen dip, making NGC 2547 the youngest cluster in which such a feature has been observed. Our derived mass function spans the range 0.1-6 M-circle dot and is similar to that for the field and the older, more massive clusters M35 and the Pleiades, supporting the idea of a universal initial mass function.