The Sharpless Catalog

Click on the small images to see larger ones.

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Sh 2-61

Coordinates: (26.44°, 1.74°)
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This object is sometimes mistaken for a planetary nebula but in fact is a compact HII region ionised by at least 3 B1 stars and embedded in a 23 thousand solar mass molecular cloud.

One of these stars, the emission star AS 310, is now believed to be a star cluster according to a SIMBAD note.

A slightly more detailed hydrogen-alpha image of this nebula produced using data from SuperCOSMOS is available here.

Sh 2-62

Coordinates: (26.81°, 3.54°)
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This tiny nebula is visible against and perhaps embedded in the Aquila Rift complex of dark clouds.

Superimposed on this nebula is the B1.5e V Herbig Be star MWC 297.

Avedisova includes Sh 2-62 in the star formation region SFR 26.81+3.54, along with MWC 297 and the Aquila Rift dark clouds.

Sh 2-63

Coordinates: (27.34°, -20.94°)
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This is the high latitude molecular cloud MBM 159, which is located at a distance of about 220 pc and may form part of the Aquila rift.

Sh 2-64

Coordinates: (28.96°, 3.54°)
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This is the W 40 star formation region, also called LBN 90, which is ionised by the three B1V stars W 40 OS 1a, W 40 OS 2a and W 40 OS 3a.

It is obscured by the Aquila Rift dust clouds, which are located between W 40 and our solar system. A 2010 paper using the Herschel infrared space telescope argues that the W 40 complex is embedded in the Aquila Rift at a distance of about 260 parsecs.

You can see this region much more clearly in this false-colour MSX 8μm infrared A-band image.

Sh 2-65

Coordinates: (29.1°, -0.7°)
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This nebula is ionised by the B1 II giant [F89b] S65 4, a star which is not yet in the SIMBAD catalog.

Russeil combines together Sh 2-65 and Sh 2-66. Both are seen at radio frequencies to lie at the edge of the massive W 43 complex. (Note that W 43 is believed to be twice as far away however, in the galactic bar region.)

Sh 2-66

Coordinates: (30.5°, 0.4°)
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The exciting star for this HII region is the O9.5 III giant LS IV -02 16.

Russeil combines together Sh 2-65 and Sh 2-66. Both are seen at radio frequencies to lie at the edge of the massive W 43 complex. (Note that W 43 is believed to be twice as far away however, in the galactic bar region.)

Sh 2-67

Coordinates: (30.62°, -0.62°)
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Also called LBN 94, this nearby nebula is ionised by the B0.5 V star BD -2 4752.

Sh 2-68

Coordinates: (30.68°, 6.23°)
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The expansion of this 30 thousand year old planetary nebula has been halted by the surrounding local gas but the central star has continued to move so as a result the star is no longer at the centre of the nebula.

Sh 2-69

Coordinates: (31.89°, 1.42°)
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This compact HII region is ionised by the B0.5 IV subgiant [F89b] S69 2. It is also a radio source and lies at the centre of a prominent infrared bubble.

Sh 2-70

Coordinates: (35.09°, 11.37°)
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Although usually classified as an HII region, this peculiar high latitude nebula, also called LBN 102, looks more like a dust cloud in this image, and indeed this object is in the same direction as the small molecular cloud [CB88] 124.

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Stewart Sharpless published the second and final version of his famous nebula catalog in 1959. Although astronomers publish articles referring to the Sharpless 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 Sharpless objects are clearly visible only in CCD images or in 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 northern hemisphere are in the Sharpless catalog so the 313 objects it contains are well worth examining carefully. (In fact there are more than 313 objects as subsequent research has shown that some of the Sharpless nebulae consist of more than one object.) Although the Sharpless catalog is only intended to be complete for objects visible north of declination -27 degrees, a similar catalog covering the southern hemisphere was published by Alex Rodgers, Colin Campbell, and John Whiteoak in 1960, which is largely an expansion of Colin Gum's earlier catalog. You can visit a gallery of these RCW nebulae here. At least 50 objects in the Sharpless catalog are also in the RCW catalog and I have noted this in the descriptions of these objects.

Most of the images used to illustrate the Sharpless catalog were created using the POSS-II/UKSTU data of the Digitized Sky Survey, or, where available, the more detailed SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey. In both cases, 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.