The RCW Catalog
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[ 1 | 11 | 21 | 31 | 41 | 51 | 61 | 71 | 81 | 91 | 101 | 111 | 121 | 131 | 141 | 151 | 161 | 171 | 181 ]RCW 111
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Avedisova places both RCW 110 and RCW 111 in star formation region SFR 340.79-1.01 along with two masers, the star cluster Lynga 14 and the HII region IRAS 16506-4512.
Dutra and colleagues say that the infrared cluster [DBS2003] 106 is deeply embedded in RCW 111 at a distance of 2600 parsecs.
RCW 112
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RCW 113
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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.
RCW 114
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SIMBAD incorrectly identifies the nebula and the supernova remnant.
RCW 115
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However, there is no visible nebulosity at this location and, according to SIMBAD, no references in the scientific literature beyond the RCW catalog itself.
It seems likely that this nebula does not exist.
RCW 116
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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.
RCW 117
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RCW 117 contains the deeply embedded infrared cluster [DBS2003] 116 at a distance of 2800 parsecs according to Dutra and colleagues.
RCW 117 is a very bright radio and infrared source and can be seen in this Spitzer space telescope image.
RCW 118
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You can see the full extent of the nebula in this SuperCOSMOS hydrogen-alpha image.
RCW 119
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RCW 119a
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RCW 120
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Alex Rodgers, Colin Campbell, and John Whiteoak, working at Australia's Mount Stromlo observatory under the direction of Dutch-American astronomer Bart Bok, published their nebula catalog in 1960. The RCW catalog is largely an expansion of Colin Gum's 1955 catalog. Although astronomers publish articles referring to the RCW nebulae almost every month, there seems to be few places on the Internet that bring together information on these nebulae as a whole - unlike, for example, the Messier catalog. This is most likely because the Messier objects are visible to anyone with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope. Most of the RCW objects are clearly visible only in long exposure CCD images or photographic plates taken by large telescopes. Fortunately some of these plates have now been digitally scanned and made publicly available.
Many of the brightest and most beautiful Milky Way star formation regions visible from the southern hemisphere are in the RCW catalog so the 182 objects it contains are well worth examining carefully. (In fact there are more than 182 objects as subsequent research has shown that some of the RCW nebulae consist of more than one object.) At least 50 objects in the RCW catalog are also in the Sharpless catalog and I have noted this in the descriptions of these objects.
Most of the images used to illustrate the RCW 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.