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TheSharpless catalog is a list of 313H II regions (emissionnebulae) intended to be comprehensive north of declination −27°. (It does include some nebulae south of that declination as well.) The first edition was published in 1953 with 142 objects (Sh1), and the second and final version was published by US astronomerStewart Sharpless in 1959 with 312 objects. Sharpless also includes someplanetary nebulae andsupernova remnants, in addition to H II regions.[1]
In 1953 Stewart Sharpless joined the staff of theUnited States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station,[2] where he surveyed and catalogedH II regions of theMilky Way using the images from thePalomar Sky Survey. From this work Sharpless published his catalog of H II regions in two editions: the first in 1953, with 142 nebulae;[3] and the second and final edition in 1959, with 312 nebulae.[2][4]
Sharpless coordinates are based on the star catalogs Bonner Durchmusterung (BD) and Cordoba Durchmusterung (CD), but the second release was adjusted to the 1900 epoch.[1]
In the second release, some coordinates for southern hemisphere regions have an uncertainty over 1 minute of arc.[1] This can make them difficult to find, so a revised catalog called BFS (Blitz, Fich and Stark) was released[1] with 65 new regions and about 20 removals.[1] Most of the removed items were the aforementioned nebula or remnants.[1]
The 312 items in Sharpless sometimes overlap with the 110Messier objects (M), 7,840 objects in theNew General Catalogue (NGC), theCaldwell catalogue (itself a "best of" from other catalogues, with 109 items), and theRCW catalog. Contemporary catalogs wereGum andRCW, but they mainly covered the southern hemisphere.
Table of second Sharpless (1958 version) catalog; click on image for image credit, most of which are either various amateur astronomers, the ESO, ESA, or NASA