The Sharpless Catalog

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Sh 2-281 Coordinates: (209.03°, -19.48°) Distance: 500 pc, Size: 8.7 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
This is the Orion nebula.
Sh 2-282 Coordinates: (210.07°, -2.31°) Distance: 1500 pc, Size: 15.3 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
The exciting star of this HII region, HD 47432 (the bright star in the upper part of the image), is located at a distance of 1250 pc and is probably a member of the Mon OB2 association (whose distance is usually given as 1550 pc). The HII region contains a system of eight cometary globules.
Sh 2-283 Coordinates: (210.83°, -2.56°) Distance: 9100 pc, Size: 7.9 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
Includes the infrared cluster [BDS2003] 84.
Sh 2-284 Coordinates: (212.00°, -1.31°) Distance: 5200 pc, Size: 121.0 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
This region is associated with the star cluster Dolidze 25.
Sh 2-285 Coordinates: (213.81°, 0.62°) Distance: 6900 pc, Size: 2.0 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
Contains at least two B0 V stars and the infrared cluster [BDS2003] 85.
Sh 2-286 Coordinates: (217.32°, -1.37°) Distance: 6600 pc, Size: 11.5 pc Source: 2003A&A...397..133R [ Find on map | See details ]
Contains the infrared cluster [BDS2003] 88.
Sh 2-287 Coordinates: (218.12°, -0.38°) Distance: 2100 pc, Size: 7.3 pc Source: 1992A&A...254..339N [ Find on map | See details ]
Sh 2-287 appears to be associated with Maddalena's cloud (G216-2.5). It contains 4000-5000 solar masses of gas and dust and a bipolar nebula, NS 14.
Sh 2-288 Coordinates: (218.71°, 1.84°) Distance: 3000 pc, Size: 0.9 pc Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B [ Find on map | See details ]
This HII region, also called IC 466, is ionised by an O9V star.
Sh 2-289 Coordinates: (218.84°, -4.55°) Distance: 10100 pc, Size: 32.3 pc Source: 1989AJ.....97.1727L [ Find on map | See details ]
Avedisova concludes that Sh 2-289, which is apparently located in the outer galaxy possibly beyond even the Outer arm, is ionised by the B0.5 V class LSS 86 and an uncatalogued B1 V class star (MFJ Sh 2-289 2). Curiously, she omits two other ionising stars mentioned by MFJ: LS 85 and MFJ Sh 2-289 4. (Both are B-class according to SIMBAD.) Sh 2-289 is located well below the galactic plane, and this may in part be related to an outer galaxy warp in the third quadrant which bends the galactic disk downwards. See the Other Outer Arm Objects section in the description of the Monoceros Arc (220° - 210°) sector in the Commentary on the Galactic Plane for more information and detailed references.
Sh 2-290 Coordinates: (219.10°, 31.30°) Distance: Unknown [ See details ]
This is the planetary nebula Abell 31.

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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.