The Gum Catalog
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[ 1 | 11 | 21 | 31 | 41 | 51 | 61 | 71 | 81 ]Gum 51
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The nebula appears to be surrounded by numerous small molecular clouds listed in the [YSM99] catalog and is likely embedded in the compact OB association R105. Humphreys gives a distance estimate of 1580 parsecs for the R105 association. Kharchenko calls this association Nor OB5 and lists the O9 V HD 144695 and 4 ionising B-stars in addition to three of the O-stars mentioned by Avedisova. She gives an age of 12.8 million years and a distance of 1800 parsecs.
RCW 105 / Gum 51 has a spectacular bubble structure in infrared, as can be seen in this MSX image.
You can see a visible light image here.
Gum 52
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Gum 53
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Avedisova places it in star formation region SFR 336.43-1.26 along with the star cluster NGC 6193, the molecular cloud [TUW2004] SFO 79 and the dark cloud DCld 336.4-01.5.
Kharchenko lists the O7 V multiple star HD 150135 and 3 ionising B-stars in NGC 6193. She gives an age of 7.9 million years and a distance of 1155 parsecs. A 2008 study adds a second O-star to NGC 6193, the ultrahot O3+O6V multiple HD 150136. The region also contains the infrared cluster RCW 108-IR, which includes a probable O9 class star.
A good black and white hydrogen-alpha image of this region can be found here.
Full colour images are here, here and here. You can see the MSX infrared image here.
Gum 54
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RCW 110 and RCW 111 are condensations within the larger Gum 54 nebula.
Gum 54 can be seen in this MSX infrared image.
Gum 55
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Gum notes that this region is "A large roughly semicircular loop, whose ragged appearance is due in part to overlying obscuration. At its centre is the galactic cluster NGC 6231, which is the nucleus of an O-Association".
Humphreys lists 3 O-stars and 27 ionising B-class stars in Sco OB1 and gives a distance of 1910 parsecs.
Kharchenko lists 15 ionising stars for NGC 6231 including 9 O-stars, 5 B-stars and the Wolf-Rayet binary star WR 79. The hottest O-star listed by Kharchenko is the O6 III:(f)p binary giant HD 152233. She gives an age of 6.4 million years and a distance of 1250 parsecs for the cluster. A 2008 study gives a distance of 1640 parsecs and finds 15 O-stars in the direction of the cluster core.
You can find a better view of the bat-like edge of this nebula here and a stunning view of the full RCW 113 nebula and the larger Sco OB1 region here.
You can see the full extent of the vast nebular clouds in the Sco OB1 region in this SuperCOSMOS explorer image and some photographs of SFO 82, the prominent bright-rimmed cometary globule visible inside RCW 113, here. SFO 82 is often called "the Dark Tower of Scorpius" by amateur astronomers and is described in detail in this 1976 paper.
Gum 56
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Avedisova says that the Prawn nebula is ionised by two O-class giants: HD 332417 (O6 III) and HD 152723 (O6.5 III). She places it in star formation region SFR 344.22+1.70 with 59 components, including 19 infrared sources, 8 masers, the emission star MCW 1264 and Trumpler 24. (Avedisova misspells the name of the emission star as MWC 1264, but this is clearly an error. The HD catalog gives a completely different location and spectral class for HD 332417 so it appears that Avedisova is mistaken in this case.)
Reed lists the O5 III giant LS 3873=HD 322417, the O6 III giant LS 3868, the O8 star LS 3843, the O9 star LS 3840 and the O9.5 IV subgiant LS 3874 in this direction as well. Given the similarity in names, it seems possible that Avedisova's HD 332417 reference was meant to be HD 322417.
The nebula contains the infrared clusters [DBS2003] 113 and [DBS2003] 114, as well as the infrared group [DBS2003] 117.
This is a black and white hydrogen-alpha image of the Prawn nebula - much more colourful images are widely available on the Internet. You can also see several knots of young star development in this MSX infrared image.
Given the high concentration of O-stars in this direction and the prominence of the Prawn nebula at infrared and radio frequencies, it is surprising that this region has received so little study to date in the scientific literature.
Gum 57a
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Gum 57b
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Gum 58
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Gum 59
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The RCW catalog cross references this object with the Sharpless object E6 = Sh 1-6 = Sh 2-5. The locations given for Sh 2-5 and RCW 123 differ considerably but this is not surprising because this is a huge diffuse nebula. The RCW catalog further notes that this object is a "Loop".
This large scale SuperCOSMOS image confirms that Sh 2-5 and RCW 123 are different locations within a huge diffuse nebula prominent in hydrogen-alpha.
The larger region around RCW 121, RCW 122 and RCW 123 is spectacular in infrared. This Spitzer image shows only a part of this region. While not as detailed, this MSX image shows a wider view of the region in which the compact HII regions RCW 121 and 122 are seen to be bright knots at the rim of a vast star forming cavity centred on the ionising cluster Havlen-Moffat 1 and filled by the diffuse HII region RCW 123.
Gum 60
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Colin Gum, working at Australia's Mount Stromlo observatory in 1951, completed the first major survey of HII regions visible in the southern hemisphere. He published his nebula catalog in 1955. Although Gum's catalog was largely superceded by the RCW catalog published in 1960, many HII regions are still referenced by their Gum numbers even today, so these pages provide an easy reference with cross references to the RCW and Sharpless catalogs.
Most of the images used to illustrate the Gum catalog were created using the
SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey, with red = hydrogen-alpha,
blue = UKST Blue and green = UKST Infrared. Because green represents infrared, the images are not quite
the same as would be seen at purely visual frequencies. Green in these images usually reveals warm dust or red giant stars.
These images were created using the POSS-II/UKSTU data of the
Digitized Sky Survey and
SuperCOSMOS
using the process described here.
According to my correspondence with the Royal Observatory Edinburgh and the Space Telescope Science Institute,
I am allowed to use the POSS-II/UKSTU data to
create and display images for non-commercial purposes
so long as I include this fine print for the SuperCOSMOS data:
Use of these images is courtesy of the UK Schmidt Telescope (copyright in
which is owned by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of
the UK and the Anglo-Australian Telescope Board) and the Southern Sky Survey
as created by the SuperCOSMOS measuring machine and are reproduced here
with permission from the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
and this acknowledgement taken from the DSS site:
The Digitized Sky Surveys were produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under
U.S. Government grant NAG W-2166. The images of these surveys are based on photographic
data obtained using the Oschin Schmidt Telescope on Palomar Mountain and the UK Schmidt Telescope.
The plates were processed into the present compressed digital form with the permission of these institutions.
The Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-II) was made by the
California Institute of Technology with funds from the National Science Foundation,
the National Geographic Society, the Sloan Foundation, the Samuel Oschin Foundation,
and the Eastman Kodak Corporation.
The UK Schmidt Telescope was operated by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh,
with funding from the UK Science and Engineering Research Council
(later the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council), until 1988 June,
and thereafter by the Anglo-Australian Observatory. The blue plates of the southern Sky Atlas
and its Equatorial Extension (together known as the SERC-J), as well as the Equatorial Red (ER),
and the Second Epoch [red] Survey (SES) were all taken with the UK Schmidt.
The "Second Epoch Survey" of the southern sky was made by the
Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) with the UK Schmidt Telescope.
Plates from this survey have been digitized and compressed by the ST ScI.
The digitized images are copyright © 1993-5 by the Anglo-Australian Observatory Board,
and are distributed herein by agreement.
The "Equatorial Red Atlas" of the southern sky was made with the UK Schmidt Telescope.
Plates from this survey have been digitized and compressed by the ST ScI.
The digitized images are copyright © 1992-5, jointly by the UK SERC/PPARC
(Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council,
formerly Science and Engineering Research Council) and the Anglo-Australian Telescope Board,
and are distributed herein by agreement.
The compressed files of the "Palomar Observatory - Space Telescope Science Institute Digital Sky Survey"
of the northern sky, based on scans of the Second Palomar Sky Survey are copyright © 1993-1995 by the
California Institute of Technology and are distributed herein by agreement.
The compressed files of the "Palomar Observatory - Space Telescope Science Institute Digital Sky Survey"
of the northern sky, based on scans of the Second Palomar Sky Survey are copyright © 1993-1995
by the California Institute of Technology and are distributed herein by agreement.