Abstract. The interstellar reddening law is derived for 15 heavily reddened stars in the area which includes the North America and Pelican nebulae and the dark cloud between them. The method is based on photometry of these stars in the Vilnius seven-color system and on their MK spectral types. The mean law in this area is very similar to the law for a much wider area in Cygnus derived earlier by other authors. It differs from the normal law by exhibiting somewhat stronger extinction in the violet and the near ultraviolet spectral region, i.e., it shows a smaller "knee" in the blue part of the spectrum.

Abstract. The accuracy of new CCD photometry in the Vilnius system of the M 67 cluster is analyzed. The observational material is obtained during six observing runs in 1994-2001 with the 1 meter telescope of the USNO Flagstaff Station. The main task was to establish CCD standards of high accuracy and to eliminate large-scale errors from our CCD photometry. We compare our results with the published CCD photometric data in other photometric systems. The comparison reveals considerable systematic errors in some datasets.

The dust cloud TGU H645 P2 and embedded in it young open cluster NGC 7129 are investigated using the results of medium-band photometry of 159 stars in the Vilnius seven-colour system down to V = 18.8 mag. The photometric data were used to classify about 50 % of the measured stars in spectral and luminosity classes. The extinction A V vs. distance diagram for the 20 ′ × 20 ′ area is plotted for 155 stars with two-dimensional classification from the present and the previous catalogues. The extinction values found range between 0.6 and 3.4 mag. However, some red giants, located in the direction of the dense parts of the cloud, exhibit the infrared extinction equivalent up to A V = 13 mag. The distance to the cloud (and the cluster) is found to be 1.15 kpc (the true distance modulus 10.30 mag). For determining the age of NGC 7129, a luminosity vs. temperature diagram for six cluster members of spectral classes B3 to A1 was compared with the Pisa pre-main-sequence evolution tracks and the Palla birthlines. The cluster can be as old as about 3 Myr, but star forming continues till now as witnessed by the presence in the cloud of many younger pre-main-sequence objects identified with photometry from 2MASS, Spitzer and WISE infrared surveys.

The results of CCD photometry in the Vilnius seven-color system down to V = 18 mag are presented for 242 stars in the direction of the young open cluster IC 1805 that is located in the active star-forming region W4 in the Cas OB6 association. Photometric data were used to classify stars into spectral and luminosity classes, and to determine their interstellar reddenings, extinctions and distances. We confirm the CH 3 OH and H 2 O maser VLBA parallax results that the cluster is located close to the front side of the Perseus arm, at a distance about 2.0 kpc. In the color-magnitude diagram, zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) stars of the cluster extend to spectral class A0. The extinction values for the majority of the cluster stars are between 2.2 and 2.7 mag, with a mean value of 2.46 mag. This extinction originates mainly between the Sun and the outer edge of the Local arm, in accordance with the distribution of CO clouds. In the Perseus arm and beyond, the extinction was investigated using the classification and reddening determination for A0-F0 stars measured in the r, i, Hα system of the IPHAS survey to r = 19 mag. The extinction A V within the Perseus arm ranges from 2.5-4.5 mag at the front edge to 3.0-5.0 mag at the far edge. Possibly, we have found about 20 early A-type stars located in the Outer arm. The 2MASS JHK s photometry for red giants gives much higher extinction values (up to about 6 mag), which would correspond to the stars located behind dense clouds of both arms. In the area, using the WISE, 2MASS, and IPHAS photometry data, 18 possible young stellar objects (YSOs) of low masses are identified. Six high-mass YSOs (five Ae/Be stars and a F6e star) are known from previous investigations.

Determining the distance to the open cluster M29 (NGC 6913) has proven difficult, with distances determined by various authors differing by a factor of two or more. To solve this problem, we have initiated a new photometric investigation of the cluster in the Vilnius sevencolor photometric system supplementing it with available data in the BV and JHK s photometric systems, and spectra of the nine brightest stars of spectral classes O and B. Photometric spectral classes and luminosities of 260 stars in a 15 ′ × 15 ′ area down to V = 19 mag are used to investigate the interstellar extinction run with distance and to estimate the distance of the Great Cygnus Rift, ∼ 800 pc. The interstellar reddening law in the optical and near-infrared regions is found to be close to normal, with the ratio of extinction to color excess R BV = 2.87. The extinction A V of cluster members is between 2.5 to 3.8 mag, with a mean value of 2.97 mag or E B−V = 1.03. The average distance of eight stars of spectral types O9-B2 is 1.54 ± 0.15 kpc. Two stars from the seven brightest ones are field stars: HDE 229238 is a background B0.5 supergiant and HD 194378 is a foreground F star. In the intrinsic color-magnitude diagram, seven fainter stars of spectral classes B3-B8 are identified as possible members of the cluster. The 15 selected members of the cluster of spectral classes O9-B8 plotted on the log L/L ⊙ vs. log T eff diagram, together with the isochrones from the Padova database, give the age of the cluster as 5 ± 1 Myr.