2000A&A...362..557P

We present NICMOS NIC3 observations of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 288, taken South - East at 2.4 times the cluster's half-light radius in the J and H bands. We have detected the cluster main sequence down to J≃25 and H≃24. The corresponding luminosity function covers the range 3<M_H<9 and peaks at M_H≃6.8. The theoretical tracks of Baraffe et al. (1997) at [Fe/H]=-1.3 give a mass function which is best fitted by a log-normal distribution with characteristic mass of m_c=0.42M_☉ and a standard deviation σ=0.35. This result is fully consistent with the global mass function derived by Paresce & De Marchi (2000ApJ...534..870P) for a sample of 12 globular clusters with very different dynamical histories, thus confirming that near the cluster's half-light radius the mass function at appears ``undistorted'' by evaporation or tidal interactions with the Galaxy and should then reflect the initial mass function.