The Gum Catalog

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Gum 61

Coordinates: (351.03°, 0.64°)
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This HII region is the bubble within the Cat's Paw nebula complex surrounding the O7 III giant HD 319703.

Gum 62

Coordinates: (351.17°, 0.47°)
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Gum identifies Gum 62 explicitly with NGC 6334, the Cat's Paw nebula, but the boundary box for Gum 62 is only for the lowest bubble in NGC 6334, the "heel" of the Cat's Paw.

The "heel" is a bubble surrounding HD 156738. Reed gives this star a O6.5 III class, more than sufficient to ionise the bubble, but SIMBAD gives it a much cooler B7/B8 I class.

Gum 63

Coordinates: (351.32°, 0.90°)
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Gum 63 is the largest of the four bubbles that make up the Cat's Paw nebula (NGC 6334) and appears to be ionised by the O5 V class HD 319699.

Avedisova lists this as an ionising star for NGC 6334 and SIMBAD places this star specifically in Gum 63.

Gum 64a

Coordinates: (351.17°, 0.67°)
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Gum 64a is a partially obscured nebula located between the bubbles Gum 62 and Gum 64b within NGC 6334, the complex of HII regions often called the Cat's Paw nebula. Gum calls it "a small fragment".

A 2010 paper concluded that Gum 64a is ionised by the B0.5 V star LS 4087.

Gum 64b

Coordinates: (351.33°, 0.58°)
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Gum 64b is a bubble in NGC 6334, the complex of HII regions often called the Cat's Paw nebula. It surrounds the O9 class HD 319702.

Avedisova identifies HD 319702 as an ionising star for NGC 6334 (but gives it a slightly hotter O8 III class).

Gum 64c

Coordinates: (351.36°, 0.78°)
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Gum 64c is a partially obscured nebula at the edge of the bubble Gum 63 within the NGC 6334 (Cat's Paw) complex of HII regions.

Gum 65

Coordinates: (351.31°, 17.01°)
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This combination reflection nebula and HII region is ionised by the B1 III variable giant Sigma Scorpii in the nearby Upper Scorpius subgroup of the Sco OB2 association.

Gum 66

Coordinates: (353.19°, 0.84°)
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The HII region NGC 6357, also called W 22 or the War and Peace Nebula, is ionised by the Pismis 24 and AH03 J1725−34.4 star clusters. Pismis 24 includes the multiple O4 and O4-5 star system [N78] 35 according to a 1984 paper. (SIMBAD gives a cooler O7 III class for this star.)

Near by is the Wolf-Rayet star WR 93, which is also a multiple star system with a class O7-9 companion.

The Cat's Paw nebula NGC 6334 lies at approximately the same distance and is separated from it by a dark cloud. You can see both nebulae together in this image.

An amazing closeup of part of this nebula can be seen in this Hubble image.

Gum 67

Coordinates: (355.4°, 0.2°)
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This diffuse nebula is ionised by the binary O-star (O7V + O7V) HD 159176 in the star cluster NGC 6383.

Gum 68

Coordinates: (355.9°, 1.5°)
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This nebula surrounds the O9.5V binary HD 158186, which lies in the direction of the small cluster Antalova 1.

Gum 69

Coordinates: (358.34°, -1.85°)
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This HII region is ionised by the O8 V star HD 161853 and is part of the Sh 2-15 to Sh 2-20 complex of HII regions located in the Sgr OB5 association in the Sagittarius arm. It is the location of the radio source W25.

Gum 70

Coordinates: (0.0°, -0.6°)
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Sh 2-16 is part of the Sh 2-15 to Sh 2-20 complex of HII regions located in the Sgr OB5 association in the Sagittarius arm. It appears to be ionised by the O9.5 V star LSS 4381.

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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.