Abstract:
Due mainly to high extinction in optical, the structure of our galaxy, Milky Way, is not very well understood. The Galactic disk and bulge contain a host of heavily reddened open clusters which are deeply embedded within dark molecular clouds of dust and gas. The extremely young stellar objects in these clouds can provide important informations for the study of stellar evolution and star formation. We report near infrared photometric study of one such cloud, Lynds 1340 in the survey mode. The cloud contains several nebulous regions and is shown to harbour a young cluster RN07. The near IR study provides detailed information on the embedded sources.