Gum 61

This is NGC 6334, the Cat's Paw nebula. This nebula contains five cloud fragments and at least eleven major infrared sources that are probably mostly cooler B stars. It lies at the same distance as NGC 6357, the War and Peace nebula, and is separated from it by a dark cloud. Both are near the Sco OB4 association in the Sagittarius arm.

You can see both nebula together in this image.

Avedisova lists 4 ionising O-stars, the hottest of which is the O5 V HD 319699. SIMBAD associates this star with Gum 63 and gives its class as O7. Avedisova places Sh 2-8 in the massive star formation region SFR 351.30+0.70 with 176 components, including 16 masers and the well-studied infrared HII region IRAS 17175-3544.

The Gum catalog divides this nebula into six pieces (Gum 61, 62, 63, 64a, 64b and 64c).

There are many images of this spectacular nebula available online. One of the most interesting is from Dr. Travis A. Rector at the University of Alaska - Anchorage here.

Gum 62

This is NGC 6334, the Cat's Paw nebula. This nebula contains five cloud fragments and at least eleven major infrared sources that are probably mostly cooler B stars. It lies at the same distance as NGC 6357, the War and Peace nebula, and is separated from it by a dark cloud. Both are near the Sco OB4 association in the Sagittarius arm.

You can see both nebula together in this image.

Avedisova lists 4 ionising O-stars, the hottest of which is the O5 V HD 319699. SIMBAD associates this star with Gum 63 and gives its class as O7. Avedisova places Sh 2-8 in the massive star formation region SFR 351.30+0.70 with 176 components, including 16 masers and the well-studied infrared HII region IRAS 17175-3544.

The Gum catalog divides this nebula into six pieces (Gum 61, 62, 63, 64a, 64b and 64c).

There are many images of this spectacular nebula available online. One of the most interesting is from Dr. Travis A. Rector at the University of Alaska - Anchorage here.

Gum 63

This is NGC 6334, the Cat's Paw nebula. This nebula contains five cloud fragments and at least eleven major infrared sources that are probably mostly cooler B stars. It lies at the same distance as NGC 6357, the War and Peace nebula, and is separated from it by a dark cloud. Both are near the Sco OB4 association in the Sagittarius arm.

You can see both nebula together in this image.

Avedisova lists 4 ionising O-stars, the hottest of which is the O5 V HD 319699. SIMBAD associates this star with Gum 63 and gives its class as O7. Avedisova places Sh 2-8 in the massive star formation region SFR 351.30+0.70 with 176 components, including 16 masers and the well-studied infrared HII region IRAS 17175-3544.

The Gum catalog divides this nebula into six pieces (Gum 61, 62, 63, 64a, 64b and 64c).

There are many images of this spectacular nebula available online. One of the most interesting is from Dr. Travis A. Rector at the University of Alaska - Anchorage here.

Gum 64

This is NGC 6334, the Cat's Paw nebula. This nebula contains five cloud fragments and at least eleven major infrared sources that are probably mostly cooler B stars. It lies at the same distance as NGC 6357, the War and Peace nebula, and is separated from it by a dark cloud. Both are near the Sco OB4 association in the Sagittarius arm.

You can see both nebula together in this image.

Avedisova lists 4 ionising O-stars, the hottest of which is the O5 V HD 319699. SIMBAD associates this star with Gum 63 and gives its class as O7. Avedisova places Sh 2-8 in the massive star formation region SFR 351.30+0.70 with 176 components, including 16 masers and the well-studied infrared HII region IRAS 17175-3544.

The Gum catalog divides this nebula into six pieces (Gum 61, 62, 63, 64a, 64b and 64c).

There are many images of this spectacular nebula available online. One of the most interesting is from Dr. Travis A. Rector at the University of Alaska - Anchorage here.

Gum 65

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.

Dean Salman has created a beautiful image of this nebula that can be seen here.

Gum 66

This is the star formation region NGC 6357, also called the War and Peace Nebula or the radio source W22. It contains and is ionised by the star cluster Pismis 24 which includes the massive multiple O4 and O4-5 star system HD 319718 as well as the Wolf-Rayet star WR 93, which is also a multiple star system with a class O7-9 companion. (SIMBAD gives a much cooler O7 class for HD 319718 but this is contradicted by several papers on Pismis 24 and appears to be incorrect.)

In addition to these extremely hot stars, Avedisova also lists 3 cooler B2-B3 class ionising stars. She places Sh 2-11 in the star formation region SFR 353.12+0.71 with 66 components, including two masers and numerous radio HII regions.

Sh 2-11 lies near the Sco OB4 association at the same distance as the Cat's Paw nebula Sh 2-8 and is separated from it by a dark cloud.

You can see both nebulae together in this image and a good narrowband image of Sh 2-11 here.

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

Gum 67

Also known as LBN 1116 and the radio source W23, this nebula is ionised by the binary O-star (O7V + O7V) HD 159176 in the star cluster NGC 6383.

Avedisova places Sh 2-12 in star formation region SFR 355.37+0.22 along with 5 masers and the infrared HII region IRAS 17302-3245. It contains the infrared star cluster [BDS2003] 102.

A recent 2007 study finds that NGC 6383 (and hence Sh 2-12) is at a distance of 1700 pc - this would place Sh 2-12 near the Sco OB4 association, and make it part of a large collection of other HII regions, including the Cat's Paw (Sh 2-8) and War and Peace (Sh 2-11) nebulae, in the same general location.

Kharchenko's cluster database includes NGC 6383 with the ionising members DM -32 12935 = HD 159176 (O6V+O6V), HD 317845 (B 1 V), and HD 317844 (B1:V:nn) but gives a much closer distance of 985 parsecs. SIMBAD gives a B5 class for these last two stars, which if true would make them too cool for significant ionisation.

Sh 2-11, Sh 2-12 and Sh 2-13 can be seen together in this hydrogen-alpha image.

Gum 68

Avedisova says that this nebula is ionised by the O9.5 V star HD 158186 and the B2 V Antalova OB-51. She places it in star formation region SFR 355.89+1.61 along with the star cluster Antalova 1. It is next to the larger Sh 2-12 (part of which is on the lower left of this image). A 2005 paper concludes that HD 158186 may be a runaway star ejected from NGC 6383, the star cluster at the heart of Sh 2-12.

Kharchenko's cluster database includes Antalova 1 with HD 158186 as a member. However, she gives a significantly cooler B2/B3II class for HD 158186 and a much closer distance of 850 parsecs.

Sh 2-11, Sh 2-12 and Sh 2-13 can be seen together in this hydrogen-alpha image.

Gum 69

This HII region is ionised by the O8 V star HD 161853 and is part of the S15-S20 complex of HII regions. It is also the location of the radio source W25.

Avedisova places it in star formation region SFR 358.44-1.88 with 2 masers and the star cluster VDBH 249. (However, SIMBAD identifies VDBH 249 as a globular cluster.)

Gum 70

Avedisova concludes that this HII region is ionised by the O9.5 V star LSS 4381. She places Sh 2-16 in star formation region SFR 359.79-0.35 with the infrared source IRAS 17433-2921 and the star cluster VDBH 222. The nebula also includes the [DB2000] 56 infrared cluster.

Sh 2-16 is part of the S15-S20 complex of HII regions.