The Sharpless Catalog

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Sh 2-241 Coordinates: (180.90°, 4.13°) Distance: 4700 pc, Size: 13.7 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
The exciting star for this nebula is the O9V star LS V +30 31. The nebula is a blister on the side of a molecular cloud at 5300 +/- 1100 parsecs. This field also contains the reflection nebula vdB 65 at 1100 parsecs, which is a completely unrelated object. Should be moved.
Sh 2-242 Coordinates: (182.36°, 0.18°) Distance: 2100 pc, Size: 4.3 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
This HII region is excited by a B0V star and appears to lie at a distance of 2700 parsecs. Should be moved.
Sh 2-243 Coordinates: (184.08°, -4.17°) Distance: 2000 pc, Size: 3.5 pc Source: 2003A&A...397..133R [ Find on map | See details ]
There is no visible nebulosity on this image, nor has anything been detected in radio frequencies. It is not clear whether this object actually exists.
Sh 2-244 Coordinates: (184.60°, -5.80°) Distance: 1930 pc, Size: 2.8 pc Source: 1973PASP...85..579T [ Find on map | See details ]
This is the Crab nebula supernova remnant.
Sh 2-245 Coordinates: (186.35°, -34.32°) Distance: 210 pc, Size: 44.1 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
May be connected to the Barnard Loop, Sh 2-276.
Sh 2-246 Coordinates: (186.96°, -16.58°) Distance: 3700 pc, Size: 70.0 pc Source: 2003A&A...397..133R [ Find on map | See details ]
Sh 2-246 is visible in the direction of Lynds dark cloud LDN 1562, which together with Lynds dark cloud LDN 1563 forms a local dust ridge located well below the galactic plane at a distance of 180 pc, and is part of the Taurus dust cloud complex within the Gould belt, our local stellar neighbourhood. BFS provide no distance estimate for this nebula but note "Bright dark cloud". Avedisova concludes that Sh 2-246 and LDN 1562 are part of the same star formation region, SFR 186.96-16.58. If Sh 2-246 is actually embedded in this dust ridge, it must be much closer than the distance estimate given here.
Sh 2-247 Coordinates: (188.93°, 0.79°) Distance: 2000 pc, Size: 5.2 pc Source: 1995ApJ...445..246C [ Find on map | See details ]
The Sh 2-247 molecular cloud is part of the Gem OB1 complex, contains 37 thousand solar masses at a distance of 2200 pc and appears to be physically connected through CO filaments with Sh 2-252. The exciting star is LS V 21 27 (B0 III star).
Sh 2-248 Coordinates: (189.10°, 2.90°) Distance: 1500 pc, Size: 21.8 pc Source: 2005ApJ...624L..41B [ Find on map | See details ]
This is the Jellyfish nebula, the 3000-year-old Gem A supernova remnant (SNR 189.1+03.0), also called IC 443.
Sh 2-249 Coordinates: (189.01°, 4.02°) Distance: 1600 pc, Size: 37.2 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
This HII region is excited by members of the Gem OB1 association.

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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.