Astrophotography by Anthony Ayiomamitis

Sharpless Catalog Nebula Image Gallery

The Sharpless catalog of emission nebulae contains 313 entries representing H-II emission nebulae with a declination of -27 degrees or above. Compiled and published by American astronomer Stewart Sharpless (USNO) in 1959 (see here), the catalog contains a wide variety of star formation regions across the Milky Way including various Herbig-Haro and Wolf-Rayet objects as well as a number of well-known emission nebulae such as the Trifid (M20), the Eagle (M20), Orion (M42), Lagoon (M8), the Crescent (NGC 6888), and the Crab (M1) nebula.

Note: This impressive bright emission nebula in Cygnus, also known as the Clown Face Nebula, lies just west of Deneb (á-Cyg, mag 1.33) and spans 25 light-years in diameter. Lying at a distance of 5,675 light-years away, the excitation of hydrogen and the consequent nebula emission is attributed to the O8V class star BD+45 3216 (SAO 49801, mag 9.2). Sh2-112 is ideally placed during summer and early fall where it is directly overhead immediately after darkness.

Please click on the image below to display in higher resolution (1200 x 900)
Image Details
Sh2-112 - Emission Nebula in Cygnus
Imaging Details
Sharpless Number:
2-112

Common Name(s):
Clown Nebula
Clown Face Nebula

Other Designations:
Ced 181, LBN 337

Object Type:
Bright Nebula

Object Classif:
E C AF

Constellation:
Cygnus

RA / Dec:
20h 33m 50s /
45° 39' 36"

Distance:
5,675 light-yrs

Object Size:
15' x 7 '

Magnitude:
N/A
Date:
Sep 05-06, 2007
22:15 - 02:30 UT+3

Location:
Athens, Greece

Equipment:
AP 160 f/7.5 StarFire EDF
AP 1200GTO GEM
SBIG ST-2000XM
SBIG CFW10
SBIG LRGB + IR-block

Integrations:
Lum (Red) :  120 min (12 x 10 min)
Red :  060 min (06 x 10 min)
Green :  060 min (06 x 10 min)
Blue :  060 min (06 x 10 min)
Dark :  600 min (15 x 10 min)
Flat :  ~ 44,500 ADU
Binning :  1x1 (Lum),  1x1 (RGB)

Temperatures:
Ambient : + 27.4 ° C
CCD Chip : - 05.0 ° C

Software:
CCDSoft V5.00.182
AIP4Win V2.1.19
Photoshop CS2