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Emission-line stars in young open clusters are identified to study their properties, as a function of age, spectral type and their evolutionary state. 207 open star clusters were observed using slitless spectroscopy method and 157 emission stars were identified in 42 clusters. We have found 54 new emission-line stars in 24 open clusters, out of which 19 clusters are found to house emission stars for the first time. About 20% clusters harbour emission stars. The fraction of clusters housing emission stars is maximum in both the 0--10 and 20--30 Myr age bin ($\sim$ 40% each) and in the other age bins, this fraction ranges between 10% -- 25%, upto 80 Myr. We have used optical colour magnitude diagram (CMD) along with Near-IR Colour-Colour diagram (NIR CCDm) to classify the emission stars into Classical Be (CBe) stars and Herbig Be (HBe) stars. Most of the emission stars in our survey belong to CBe class ($\sim$ 92%) while a few are HBe stars ($\sim$ 6%) and HAe stars ($\sim$1%). The CBe stars are located all along the MS in the optical CMDs of clusters of all ages, which indicates that the Be phenomenon is unlikely due to core contraction near the turn-off. Most of the clusters which contain emission stars are found in Cygnus, Perseus & Monoceros region of the Galaxy, which are locations of active star formation. The distribution of CBe stars as a function of spectral type shows peaks at B1-B2 and B6-B7. Our results indicate there could be two mechanisms responsible for the CBe phenomenon. Some are born CBe stars (fast rotators), as indicated by their presence in clusters younger than 10 Myr. Some stars evolve to CBe stars, as indicates by the enhancement in the fraction of clusters with CBe stars in the 20-30 Myr age bin., Comment: 54 pages, 18 figures, Submitted to MNRAS

We present a UBV CCD photometric study of four open clusters, NGC 7245, King 9, IC 166 and King 13, located between $l = 90^o - 135^o$. All are embedded in a rich galactic field. NGC 7245 and King 9 are close together in the sky and have similar reddenings. The distances and ages are: NGC 7245, 3.8$\pm$0.35 kpc and 400 Myr; King 9 (the most distant cluster in this quadrant) 7.9$\pm$1.1 kpc and 3.0 Gyr. King 13 is 3.1$\pm$0.3 kpc distant and 300 Myr old. King 9 and IC 166 (4.8$\pm$0.5 kpc distant & 1 Gyr old) may be metal poor clusters (Z=0.008), as estimated from isochrone fitting. The average value of the distance of young clusters from the galactic plane in the above longitude range and beyond 2 kpc ($-47\pm$16 pc, for 64 clusters), indicates that the young disk bends towards the southern latitudes., Comment: To appear in MNRAS

We present a photometric and spectroscopic study of the young open cluster NGC 7419, which is know to host a large number of classical Be stars for reasons not well understood. Based on CCD photometric observations of 327 stars in UBV passbands, we estimated the cluster parameters as, reddening E(B-V) = 1.65 +/- 0.15 mag and distance = 2900 +/- 400 pc. The turn off age of the cluster was estimated as 25 +/- 5 Myr using isochrone fits. UBV data of the stars were combined with JHK data from 2MASS and were used to create the near infrared (NIR) (J-H) vs (H-K) colour-colour diagram. A large fraction of stars (42%) was found to have NIR excess and their location in the diagram was used to identify them as intermediate mass pre-MS stars. The isochrone fits to pre-MS stars in the optical colour-magnitude diagram showed that the turn-on age of the cluster is 0.3 - 3 Myr. This indicates that there has been a recent episode of star formation in the vicinity of the cluster. Slit-less spectra were used to identify 27 stars which showed H-alpha in emission in the field of the cluster, of which 6 are new identifications. All these stars were found to show NIR excess and located closer to the region populated by Herbig Ae/Be stars in the (J-H) vs (H-K) diagram. Slit spectra of 25 stars were obtained in the region 3700A - 9000A. The spectral features were found to be very similar to those of Herbig Be stars. Those stars were found to be more reddened than the main sequence stars by 0.4 mag on an average. Thus the emission line stars found in this cluster are more similar to the Herbig Be type stars where the circumstellar material is the remnant of the accretion disk., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publishing in MNRAS on April 19, 2006