We put forward evidence that relates the phenomenon of the chemically peculiar stars of the upper main sequence to Supernovae explosions in young clusters. In the Upper Scorpius region we find that a supernova shell has interacted with dense clouds and that the peculiar stars lie close to or along the edges of interaction.

We argue that the stars at or near the cloud faces are capable of acquiring this enriched material which is sufficiently slowed down. The magnetic accretion process of Havnes and Conti provides the mechanism of acquisition. This process with the associated magnetic braking accounts for the build-up in abundance anomalies and the slowing down of rotation with age.

HD 147010, which is in the reflection nebula vd B 102, has been found to be a hot Ap silicon star rather than a normal A supergiant. From theUBV and JHK photometry of the star, colour excessE(B - V) of 0.29 and the ratio of total-to-selective absorptionR of 4.3 have been obtained. The high value ofR implies bigger grain size and also confirms the association of the star with the nebula. The dereddened colours of the star can be fitted to a theoretical energy distribution with T_eff = 13000 ± 500 K and logg = 3.6 ± 0.2. HD 147010 has also been found to be a spectrum variable; in particular, lines of Cr II show large intensity variations.

Analysis of the available observational data for the α-Persei cluster members shows that rotation effects on the intermediate-band indices c₁ and (u-b) are considerable. In c₁, rotation produces a reddening of 0.040 magnitudes per 100 km s^-1 In (u-b) the effect for B stars is found to be 0.06 magnitudes per 100 km s^-1 ofV sin i.

The binaries and peculiar stars are found to behave differently in the colour excess (due to rotation) versusV sin i diagrams. These empirical effects can be utilised to recalibrate these colour indices and also to separate members that are either chemically peculiar or in binary systems.

The intrinsicuvby and HΒ indices of member stars of α-Persei, Pleiades and Scorpio-Centaurus association have been analysed in detail for rotation effects. These stars range in spectral type from B0 to F0 and the observed effects of rotation are found to be in agreement with photometric effects calculated by Collins & Sonneborn (1977) for rigidly rotating B0 to F0 stars

The observeduvby and H_α indices of member stars of the Hyades and Praesepe clusters have been analysed in detail for rotation effects. The Alpha Persei, Pleiades and the Centaurus subgroup of the Scorpio—Centaurus association have been reanalysed using the observed indices instead of the extinction-corrected indices used earlier. The observed rotation effects from the analysis of these cluster data are found to be in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions of Collins & Sonneborn (1977). We have also analysed the α,c and (u − b) values of the member stars of NGC 1976, 2264, 2287, 2422, 4755,1C 2391, IC 2602 and IC 4665 for rotation effects. The results are found to be consistent with the theoretical predictions.

The observed slopes of the rotation effects were used to determine the zero rotation main sequence values of the intermediate band photometric indices for selected clusters. We also corrected the observed indices for each star in each cluster using the theoretical predictions of Collins and Sonneborn and derived the ZRMS values for each cluster. The agreement between the two determinations is found to be good. The various ZRMS curves were utilised to derive the ZRZAMS values. A preliminary calibration of the absolute visual magnitudes as a function of α valid for ZRZAMS has also been derived. The ZRMS values of the intermediate band photometric indices for different clusters and the ZRZAMS values are listed as a function of α.

The effect of rotation on the observed colours of stars has been considered as a possible cause for the blue straggler phenomenon in clusters listed by Mermilliod (1982). It appears that this phenomenon is definitely not real in the case of the late B and early A spectral type blue stragglers that are intrinsic slow rotators. Among clusters containing the early B type blue stragglers it is found that the anomalous position of the stragglers in NGC 6633, NGC 6475 and NGC 2516 cannot be accounted for by rotation effects alone.