| Description | Images | SH2-088In April 2013 I ran an image taken in July 2012 of SH2-88. At the time I'd recorded it under its LBN notation of LBN 139. Color data, especially green and red were poor and I thought it too blue. I even put it down on my reshoot list. Figuring I'd never get to it I posted it anyway. Thanks to the "tower of babble" as I call the many catalog names for the same object it turns out I'd already retaken it under the designation of SH2-88 in October 2012 but as I was still processing July images I didn't realize it! Turns out I was right, it was too blue. Though it is still on the reshoot list as conditions in October, while better than July wasn't great and I still have some doubts this is really correct, just better. Here's the text from that original post. |
| SH2-090Sh2-90, also known as LBN 144 is an HII region in Vulpecula. It is associated with Vulpecula OB1 association. It appears to be a rather strong radio source with many radio listings in NED such as PKS 1947+266. I can't find much on it. SH2-89, a far fainter and larger nebula is just to the south. The two may be connected as deep H alpha images show they appear to either overlap or be part of the same cloud. My LRGB image barely showed it but was so noisy what little was there didn't survive processing. I'd need far more time to show it. |
| SH2-091SH2-91/LBN147 is part of a huge supernova remnant in Cygnus. The remnant is sometimes called Cygnus' other Veil Nebula. Like the Veil, it is a shockwave bubble traveling through space. You see the interstellar medium as it is shocked into visibility by the shock wave. The entire shock wave is some 3° by 4° in size and at its distance of 2,500 light-years is over 225 light-years across. Fainter parts of the shock wave are cataloged as SH2-94 and SH2-96. The remnant is known as SNR 065.2+05.7 and is thought to have blown about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. I didn't find much agreement on its age. The bubble, while larger than the Veil is much dimmer. SH2-91 is rather easy to find thanks to HD 185735, an 8th magnitude M2III star directly under it. 5th magnitude Psi (12) Cygni is about 15 minutes north and just out of my frame. |
| SH2-093Sh2-93 is also known as LBN146. I can't find much at all on this emission nebula that is located in the constellation of Vulpecula a short distance east from SH2-90. Galaxy map has two distance measurements for it. One of about 12,000 light years and another of 8500 light years. It seems to prefer the latter. This is more in line with nearby SH2-90 they put at about 7800 light years. The nebula contains the hidden infrared star cluster [BDS2003] 16. The nebula is said to shine by the light of an 09V star but I'm unable to determine which one it is. It is [F89b] S93 1 for those with better catalogs than I have. |
| SH2-101SH-2-101/LBN168, often known as the Tulip Nebula. It looks more like a rather dead one as it is really flat for a tulip as I see it. Just out of frame near the lower right is Cygnus X-1, the first known black hole. I didn't realize it was there when I took the shot or I'd have decentered the "tulip" to the east (left) a bit and picked it up. The nebula is in Cygnus about 6,000 light-years away. Normally I add H alpha to an LRGB image but this time I added H alpha to a pure RGB image. This was processed in 2007 when I had some processing issues and was just learning Photoshop. I'd likely do it very differently today. |
| SH2-106SH2-106 is a small nebula in Cygnus about 2000 light-years distant. It is often called the "Hourglass Nebula" for obvious reasons. It is 1.5 to 2 light-years across depending on which source you use. I get a bit under 1.5 light-years using my image and a distance of 2000 light-years. In the center of the nebula, between the two lobs and hidden by dust is the star that is creating this object. It is emitting hot jets of gas from its poles forming the two lobes seen in my image. It is a very young star only about 100,000 years old but about 15 times the mass of the sun. It is an O8 star. IR images indicate hundreds of low mass, brown dwarfs and protostars are hidden behind the dust as well as the illuminating O8 star. Some sources classify this as a planetary nebula but it is formed now from a dying star but one just born though due to its mass it won't live but a few more million years before dying a likely violent death as a supernova. For an image taken by the HST see: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1118a/ Related Designations for SH2-106SH2-106, |
| SH2-112Sharpless 112 (SH2-112) is a molecular cloud that is forming a star cluster. Come back in a few million years and you'll see only a star cluster, not the brilliant red cloud we see today. This nebula is located in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan not far from Deneb and the North American Nebula. Though it is not related to either. It is about twice as far away as they are at about 5600 light years. Notice there are far more stars in the southeast corner of the image (lower left) than elsewhere. This is because only part of the molecular cloud is lit up by the illuminating star BD+45 3216. It is the brightest star you see in the nebula and is near the dark lane toward the center. It is a very blue star, classed as O8, it emits most of its light in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. Such stars live only about 3 million years before going boom as a supernova. It was formed out of the cloud then escaped it. Now situated in front of the part we see, its ultraviolet light causes the hydrogen gas in the cloud to glow its characteristic pink color. It even causes some oxygen to glow giving a slight blue cast to the part of the nebula nearest the star where the ultraviolet light is strongest. The dark lanes are were the cloud is too dense to glow and is where most of the stars are forming. They are hidden behind all the dust in the cloud. I couldn't find any Chandra or other IR. images of this object, however. The fewer stars except to the lower left show there's a lot of background stars obscured by unlit parts of the cloud. Only those parts facing us that are close enough to it for sufficient ultraviolet light to hit it is visible, the rest is dark and seen only because it blocks background stars. I used 2.5 times my normal exposure time on this nebula. |
| SH2-115Sharpless 115 is a very large emission nebula in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan, about as far west of Deneb as the North American Nebula is east of it. It is thought to be about 7,500 light years distant and contain enough gas to make 4400 stars the size of our sun. It covers several times the area of sky that I can fit into my field of view. The nebula likely formed the star cluster Berkeley 90 toward the upper left of center in my image. The illuminating star, the one whose ultraviolet light causes the hydrogen gas to glow, is a member of the cluster and one of the brightest and most massive stars known. It is classed as 06. Find the cluster and note there are two brighter stars diagonally across opposite sides of the cluster from 7 O'clock to 1 O'clock. The one at 7 O'clock is the illuminating star. It is known as LS III +46 12. It appears dim compared to other stars in my image because most of its light is emitted as ultra violet light. That is mostly blocked by our atmosphere and what little does get through is blocked by my filters since it is outside the visual range of our eyes. The nebula itself is about 100 light years across. For a star to light up gas 50 light years from it is quite a feat and shows how bright it really is! But for that it will pay dearly. It will live only a couple million years before going supernova while our sun with less than 1/10th the mass will live over 10 billion years. |
| SH2-116Sh2-116 is also known as Abell 71. It is "embedded" in the much larger SH2-115 which is centered well southeast of my image. Sh2-115 really needs to be shot in H alpha with a wide angle telescope. So its outskirts show up poorly in my image. I can't find much on this object, not even a distance estimate. It is located in Cygnus not far from Deneb which cast a nasty gradient across the image. Removing it without removing nebula covering the entire image wasn't easy nor done all that well. Another reason for H alpha data. Since the distance to Sh2-116 is unknown there's no way of knowing how it relates to Sh2-115 that is also in my image. It may be in front, in it or beyond it. No way to know. So the appearance of Sh2-116 being in Sh2-115 is likely only an illusion but there's no way to know for sure either way from what I could find. |
| SH2-126Sh2-126/LBN 428 is a large HII/Reflection Nebula with lots of dust in Lacerta. It contains an interesting reflection nebula centered on the variable star V0375 Lac that varies from 14.24 to 12.94 magnitude. It appears elongated in my image. This appears due to the reflection nebula as if I only look at the brightest pixels it does appear round. NED and SIMBAD also show another object at the same coordinates, MRK 0914. NED lists it as the same object and considers it an UV Excess Source. SIMBAD shows it as a different object with exactly the same position and as a galaxy. Could this galaxy designation come from the oval appearance? A bit SW of its position is a bright area that does appear galaxy like but nothing is listed for that position. SIMBAD identifies the reflection nebula as GN 22.32.5. Simbad also shows several HH regions in the reflection nebula, one of which also shares the same coordinates as the star and the Markaryan object, HH 398. It's enough to make my brain hurt. I find little on the distance to this object. One source says 600 parsecs or about 2000 light years. That's probably a very large "about". Related Designations for SH2-126SH2-126, |
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