Open star clusters are widely distributed in our galaxy and represent a loose collection of stars which number from a few dozen to a few hundred stars and are weakly-held gravitationally. Perhaps the three most famous such open clusters are the Pleiades (M45) in Taurus, the Beehive (M44) in Cancer and the double cluster in Perseus. They are all characterized with a handful of hot and white prominent stars and nebular material surrounding these stars.

Note: NGC 1342 is a very impressive open cluster in Perseus characterized with 50 to 100 stars and which are well detached from the background sky and without a concentrated core. With an apparent diameter of 15 arc-minutes across, the cluster is dominated by multiple magnitude 8, 9 and 10 stars lying predominantly in a horizontal lane. NGC 1342 lies at a distance of 1,790-2,170 light-years away (depending on the source) and is estimated to be fairly young at only 450 million years-old. The cluster slightly overlaps the bright nebulae LDN 718 and 719 and as indicated by the traces of nebulosity in the image below. Characterized with a magnitude of 6.7, NGC 1342 was discovered by William Herschel in 1799.