New Galactic embedded cluster candidates

We report the discovery of 437 embedded clusters and stellar groups that show a variety of structures, both in the stellar and nebular components. Pairs or small groupings of clusters are observed, suggesting multiple generations at the early formation stages.

The resulting catalogue provides Galactic and equatorial coordinates, together with angular sizes for all objects. The nature of a representative test sub-sample of 14 clusters is investigated in detail by means of 2MASS photometry. The colour magnitude diagrams and radial density distributions characterise them as stellar clusters.