Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Attention is called to the rather unusual distribution of the periods of the RR Lyrae variables in NGC 5897, a metal-poor halo globular cluster with a very low central concentration. Of the seven RR Lyrae stars known in the cluster, three have periods between 0.797 and 0.856 day and two have periods of 0.45 and 0.42 day. The other two have periods of 0.34 and 0.35 day with much lower amplitudes of variation. Due to the lack of crowding in this cluster photoelectric observations and Fourier decompositions of the resulting light curves should be possible for at least six of the RR Lyrae variables. In addition, the cluster appears to contain a non-variable horizontal branch star, SK 120, lying within the instability strip. As this is the only well documented case of such a star, photoelectric observations of this star would also be desirable.