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 (M16), Orion (M42), Lagoon (M8), the Crescent (NGC 6888), and the Crab (M1) nebula.

Note: The large and dim emission nebula Sh2-155 in Cepheus lies at a distance of 2400 light-years away and spans another 35 light-years across. It is characterized with rich H-II emission nebulosity with the northern half of the nebula being significantly brighter than the southern half. Commonly referred to as the Cave Nebula owing to a circular formation near the center resembling a cave, Sh2-155 is also characterized with reflection nebulosity (vdB 155) and as indicated by the small bluish nebulosity to the lower right as well as dark nebulae to the southwest. Star formation in Sh2-155 is believed to be low.

Please click on the image below to display in higher resolution (1200 x 900)

Image Details
Sh2-155 - Cave Emission Nebula in Cepheus
Imaging Details
Sharpless Number:
2-155

Common Name(s):
Cave Nebula

Other Designations:
LBN 529, C9

Object Type:
Bright Nebula

Object Classif:
E Ir AF

Constellation:
Cepheus

RA / Dec:
22h 56m 44s /
62° 37' 04"


Distance:
2,400 light-yrs

Object Size:
60' x 30'

Magnitude:
7.7


Date:
Aug 12-13, 2010
22:45 - 04:35 UT+3


Location:
Athens, Greece

Equipment:
Takahashi FSQ-106/f5
AP 1200GTO GEM
SBIG ST-10XME
SBIG CFW10
Baader 7 nm Ha
SBIG LRGB filters


Integrations:
Lum (H-a) :  140 min (07 x 20 min)
Red :  060 min (06 x 10 min)
Green :  060 min (06 x 10 min)
Blue :  060 min (06 x 10 min)
Binning :  1x1 (Lum),  1x1 (RGB)

Image Scale:
2.65" per pixel

Temperatures:
Ambient : + 25.4 ° C
CCD Chip : - 10.0 ° C

Software:
CCDSoft V5.00.201
CCDStack V1.6.0.5
eXcalibrator V1.0.3.0
Aladin V6
GradientXTerminator
Photoshop CS2