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.

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The results of the first testing of a new CCD camera of the Molėtai Observatory are given. The linearity and the flat field corrections of good accuracy are determined by using shifted star field exposures.

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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.