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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2010
We present a direct N-body simulation modeling the evolution of the old (7 Gyr) open cluster NGC 188. This is the first N-body open cluster simulation whose initial binary population is directly defined by observations of a specific open cluster: M35 (150 Myr). We compare the simulated color–magnitude diagram at 7 Gyr to that of NGC 188, and discuss the blue stragglers produced in the simulation. We compare the solar-type main-sequence binary period and eccentricity distributions of the simulation to detailed observations of similar binaries in NGC 188. These results demonstrate the importance of detailed observations in guiding N-body open cluster simulations. Finally, we discuss the implications of a few discrepancies between the NGC 188 model and observations and suggest a few methods for bringing N-body open cluster simulations into better agreement with observations.