We present UBVI _ { c } CCD photometry of the young open cluster Stock 8 with the aim of studying its basic properties such as the amount of interstellar extinction , distance , age , stellar contents and initial mass function ( IMF ) .
We also studied the star formation scenario in this region .
From optical data , the radius of the cluster is found to be \sim 6 ^ { \prime } ( \sim 3.6 pc ) and the reddening within the cluster region varies from E ( B - V ) = 0.40 to 0.60 mag .
The cluster is located at a distance of 2.05 \pm 0.10 kpc .
Using H \alpha slitless spectroscopy and 2MASS NIR data we identified H \alpha emission and NIR excess young stellar objects ( YSOs ) , respectively .
From their locations in the colour-magnitude diagrams , majority of them seem to have ages between 1 to 5 Myr .
The spread in their ages indicate a possible non-coeval star formation in the cluster .
Massive stars in the cluster region reveal an average age of \leq 2 Myr .
In the cluster region ( r \leq 6 ^ { \prime } ) the slope of the mass function ( MF ) , \Gamma , in the mass range \sim 1.0 \leq M / M _ { \odot } < 13.4 can be represented by a power law having a slope of -1.38 \pm 0.12 , which agrees well with Salpeter value ( -1.35 ) .
In the mass range 0.3 \leq M / M _ { \odot } < 1.0 , the MF is also found to follow a power law with a shallower slope of \Gamma = -0.58 \pm 0.23 indicating a break in the slope of the IMF at \sim 1 M _ { \odot } .
The slope of the K -band luminosity function for the cluster ( r \leq 6 ^ { \prime } ) is found to be 0.31 \pm 0.02 , which is smaller than the average value ( \sim 0.4 ) obtained for embedded star clusters .

A significant number of YSOs are distributed along a Nebulous Stream towards the east side of the cluster .
A small cluster is embedded in the Nebulous Stream .
The YSOs lying in the Nebulous Stream and in the embedded cluster are found to be younger than the stars in the cluster Stock 8 .
The radio continuum , MSX , IRAS mid- and far-infrared maps and the ratio of [ S II ] /H \alpha intensities indicate that the eastern region of Stock 8 is ionization bounded whereas the western region is density bounded .
The morphology seems to indicate that the ionization/ shock front caused by the ionizing sources located in the Stock 8 region and westwards of Stock 8 has not reached the Nebulous Stream .
It appears that star formation activity in the Nebulous Stream and embedded cluster may be independent from that of Stock 8 .