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Revised distances to several Bok globules

Distances to Bok globules and small dark nebulae are important for a variety of reasons. We provide new distance estimates to several small clouds, some of them known to harbor YSO and molecular outflows, and thus being of particular interest. We use a procedure based on extinctions determined from the (H-K) vs. (J-H) diagram, and stellar distances based on a Hipparcos calibration of the main sequence locus: $M_J[(J-K)_0]$. The cloud confinement on the sky is determined from contours of the average (H-K) color formed in reseaus. Along the sight line stars affected by the clouds extinction may be extracted from the variation of the number density of atomic hydrogen $n_H\sim A_{V,\star}/D_\star$ to provide the cloud distance and its uncertainty. According to our estimates, the group of three globules CB24, CB25 and CB26 is located at 407+/-27 pc, farther than the previous estimates. CB245 and CB246 are found at 272+/-20 pc, suggesting that the current distance to these clouds is underestimated. Toward CB244 we detect a layer at 149+/-16 pc and the cloud at 352+/-18, in good agreement with previous studies. CB52 and CB54, though to be at 1500 pc, are found at 421+/-28 pc and slightly beyond 1000 pc, respectively. It seems that the most distant Bok globule known, CB3, is located at about 1400 pc, also significantly closer than currently accepted.