The Sharpless Catalog

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Sh 2-301

Also: RCW 6, Gum 5
Coordinates: (231.44°, -4.41°)
Distance: 5800 pc, Size: 15.2 pc
Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-301

This HII region, also called Gum 5, may be associated with the GS234-02 star forming supershell.

Sh 2-302

Also: RCW 7, Gum 6
Coordinates: (232.56°, 0.89°)
Distance: 1800 pc, Size: 11.0 pc
Source: 1996AJ....112.1625J

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-302

Also called RCW 7, Sh 2-302 is part of molecular cloud A in front of supershell GS234-02 and is located at a distance of 1800 pc.

Sh 2-303

Coordinates: (233.35°, -9.47°)
Distance: 575 pc, Size: 15.1 pc
Source: 2003MNRAS.346.1143B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-303

Along with Sh 2-304 and Sh 2-308, this HII region is ionised by WR 6 (EZ CMa).

Sh 2-304

Also: RCW 9
Coordinates: (233.88°, -12.39°)
Distance: 575 pc, Size: 33.5 pc
Source: 2003MNRAS.346.1143B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-304

Along with Sh 2-303 and Sh 2-308, this HII region is ionised by WR 6 (EZ CMa).

Sh 2-305

Also: RCW 8
Coordinates: (233.80°, -0.20°)
Distance: 4200 pc, Size: 4.4 pc
Source: 1995A&AS..114..557R

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-305

RCW 8 is part of a huge molecular cloud complex with a distance of 4200 pc and is ionised by at least two O-class stars, and possibly two B0 class stars as well.

Sh 2-306

Also: RCW 10
Coordinates: (234.31°, -0.36°)
Distance: 4200 pc, Size: 36.7 pc
Source: 1995A&AS..114..557R

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-306

The faint Sh 2-306 is part of the GS234-02 supershell. A part of the much brighter Sh 2-309 (RCW 13) is visible in the bottom left of this image.

Sh 2-307

Also: RCW 12, Gum 7
Coordinates: (234.56°, 0.83°)
Distance: 4200 pc, Size: 7.3 pc
Source: 1995A&AS..114..557R

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-307

The exciting star for this nebula is the B0V star MFJ Sh 2-307 3 and the nebula contains the infrared cluster candidate [DBS2003] 8. It is part of the same giant molecular cloud complex that includes S299, S300, S305, S306 and S309.

Sh 2-308

Also: RCW 11
Coordinates: (234.76°, -10.09°)
Distance: 575 pc, Size: 5.9 pc
Source: 2003MNRAS.346.1143B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-308

This ring nebula surrounds the Wolf-Rayet star WR 6.

Sh 2-309

Also: RCW 13
Coordinates: (234.76°, -0.20°)
Distance: 4200 pc, Size: 14.7 pc
Source: 1995A&AS..114..557R

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-309

This HII region is part of the GS234-02 star forming supershell, at 4000 pc from the Sun.

Sh 2-310

Also: RCW 15, Gum 8
Coordinates: (237.25°, -6.50°)
Distance: 1500 pc, Size: 209.8 pc
Source: 1982ApJS...49..183B

[ Find on map | See details ] 		Sh 2-310

This vast nebula is ionised by two multiple star systems (Tau Canis Majoris and UW Canis Majoris) each made up of several O-class stars. (These star systems are located beyond the upper right of the image.) The extremely luminous red supergiant VY CMa is located near the bright rim. The nebula is one of the largest single HII regions known in the Milky Way.

Tau Canis Majoris, which may be one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way, is sometimes called the "Mexican jumping bean star", allegedly because of the way it moves around in the eyepiece of amateur telescopes.


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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.