Collinder 34

Collinder 34 is a young open star cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia, also known as Cr 34 and SAI 24. It is embedded in the "head" of the Soul Nebula (IC 1848, Westerhout 5, Sharpless 2-199), together with Collinder 33. The cluster has no separate distance figure that I could find. The nebula it sits in is about 6,500 to 7,600 light-years away, and Collinder 34 is generally treated as part of that star-forming complex. It stands out for its setting: it lies inside a bubble in the nebula's "baby's head", centred on the O-type star HD 18326, and is surrounded by smaller infrared clusters. It is very young, with many pre-main-sequence stars still in the process of forming, and it belongs to the Cas OB6 association, which also ionises the neighbouring Heart Nebula. Collinder 33 and 34 are described as large, loosely concentrated groups of blue giant stars born from the nebula's gas.