  Five fields located close to the center of the globular cluster NGC 104=47
Tuc were surveyed in a search for variable stars. We present V-band light
curves for 42 variables. This sample includes 13 RR Lyr stars -- 12 of them
belong to the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and 1 is a background object from
the galactic halo. Twelve eclipsing binaries were identified -- 9 contact
systems and 3 detached/semi-detached systems. Seven eclipsing binaries are
located in the blue straggler region on the cluster color-magnitude diagram
(CMD) and four binaries can be considered main-sequence systems. One binary is
probably a member of the SMC. Eight contact binaries are likely members of the
cluster and one is most probably a foreground star. We show that for the
surveyed region of 47 Tuc, the relative frequency of contact binaries is very
low as compared with other recently surveyed globular clusters. The sample of
identified variables also includes 15 red variables with periods ranging from
about 2 days to several weeks. A large fraction of these 15 variables probably
belong to the SMC but a few stars are likely to be red giants in 47 Tuc. VI
photometry for about 50 000 stars from the cluster fields was obtained as a by
product of our survey.
