The Sharpless Catalog

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Sh 2-121

Coordinates: (90.23°, 1.72°)
Distance: 6300 pc, Size: 1.8 pc
Source: 2003A&A...397..133R

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-121

The HII region Sh 2-121 is surrounded by an expanding shell containing about 39 solar masses of gas. The shell is at least 650 thousand year old and is likely driven by stellar winds from an O8.5 class star.

A 2003 paper reduces the distance to Sh 2-121 to 4500 ± 1000 parsecs, which could make it part of the Perseus arm.

Sh 2-122

Coordinates: (89.19°, -41.13°)
Distance: 3300 pc, Size: 38.4 pc
Source: 2003A&A...397..133R

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-122

Sh 2-122 is likely a reflection nebula illuminated by an embedded but unseen star and associated with the molecular cloud MBM 55, at a distance of 150 pc.

A good image of this nearby object can be found here.

The distance estimate for this object needs to be changed.

Sh 2-123

Coordinates: (91.13°, -6.36°)
Distance: 3800 pc, Size: 14.4 pc
Source: 2003A&A...397..133R

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-123

Sh 2-113, Sh 2-114, Sh 2-118 and Sh 2-123 appear to be the brightest parts of a large hydrogen-alpha ridge that runs below the Cygnus complex.

Sh 2-124

Coordinates: (94.48°, -1.55°)
Distance: 2600 pc, Size: 52.9 pc
Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-124

Although very little appears in the scientific literature on the mysterious HII region Sh 2-124, located some distance to the west of the Cep OB1 association, recent detailed hydrogen-alpha imaging done for the IPHAS project reveals the structure of this violin-shaped nebula in spectacular detail.

Chini and Wink identify two uncatalogued ionising stars, with classes O7V and B2V, and give a distance estimate of 3600 parsecs. Crampton, Georgelin and Georgelin give a kinematic distance (based on gas velocity) of 4400 parsecs. Felli and Harten give a list of 5 ionising stars, including the O7.5 class LS III +50 28, and support the BFS distance estimate of 2600 parsecs.

Sh 2-125

Coordinates: (94.40°, -5.51°)
Distance: 1000 pc, Size: 2.6 pc
Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-125

The Cocoon nebula is associated with the star cluster IC 5146.

Sh 2-126

Coordinates: (95.38°, -16.80°)
Distance: 600 pc, Size: 27.9 pc
Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-126

This HII region is also called the 10 Lacertae complex.

Sh 2-127

Coordinates: (96.29°, 2.60°)
Distance: 9700 pc, Size: 5.6 pc
Source: 2003A&A...397..133R

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-127

Radio analysis reveals that Sh 2-127 consists of two distinct components - a larger weaker and more diffuse source (WB89 85A) to the northeast, consistent with ionisation by an O7 class star, and a stronger but smaller source to the southwest (WB89 85B), consistent with ionisation by an O8.5 class star. (However, it is also possible that both components are ionised by a single star.) Both components are located near the northwestern edge of a molecular cloud and are embedded in the molecular gas.

SIMBAD associates Sh 2-127 with the radio source KR 17, but a 2006 paper identifies KR 17 with Sh 2-187 in a completely different region of sky.

Sh 2-128

Coordinates: (97.50°, 3.16°)
Distance: 9400 pc, Size: 2.7 pc
Source: 2003AJ....126.1861B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-128

This region is actually located at a distance of 9.4 kpc, is about one million years old and is ionised by an O7 star.

Sh 2-129

Coordinates: (98.50°, 7.97°)
Distance: 400 pc, Size: 16.3 pc
Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-129

Sometimes called the Flying Bat nebula. This image only shows part of this large but very faint nebula.

Sh 2-130

Coordinates: (98.86°, 12.64°)
Distance: 600 pc, Size: 0.5 pc
Source: 2003A&A...397..133R

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-130

Faint nebulosity surrounds the B5 star HD 197911, the A0 star HD 197809 and the G5 star SAO 18999. HD 197911 is a runaway star blasted from the heart of the Cep OB2 association by a supernova explosion 2-3 million years ago.


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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 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.

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.