2001A&A...379..426P

By means of CCD photometry in three bands (Gunn g, r, i) we investigate the existence of 12 candidate clusters extracted via a model independent peak finding algorithm (Puddu et al., 2000, MmSAI, Vol 71, No. 4, in press) from DPOSS data. The derived color-magnitude diagrams allow us to confirm the physical nature of 9 of the cluster candidates, and to estimate their photometric redshifts. Of the other candidates, one is a fortuitous detection of a true cluster at z∼0.4, one is a false detection and the last is undecidable on the basis of the available data. The accuracy of the photometric redshifts is tested on an additional sample of 8 clusters with known spectroscopic redshifts. Photometric redshifts turn out to be accurate within z∼0.01 (interquartile range).