The Sharpless catalog is a list of 313 HII regions (emission nebulae), 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 second and final version (Sh2) was published by the astronomer Stewart Sharpless in 1959 with 313 objects.

Stewart Sharpless is an American astronomer who studied the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy and helped determine the shape of our galaxy. As a graduate student at Yerkes Observatory he worked under William Morgan with fellow graduate student Don Osterbrock. For a while Sharpless was at Mount Wilson Observatory where he worked on galaxy photography with Walter Baade and Edwin Hubble.

In 1953 Sharpless joined the staff of the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station. While there he surveyed and cataloged H II regions of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Unlike the surveys done in the southern hemisphere, Sharpless did not create his own images but instead used existing red-filtered photographs taken using the 48 inch Schmidt telescope on Palomar Mountain, southeast of Los Angeles.

Sharpless revised his first catalog using additional plates (also acquired from the 48 inch Schmidt telescope on Palomar Mountain) produced for the National Geographic - Palomar Sky Atlas. He published his second and final catalog of 313 nebulae in 1959.

My imaging combination of a Nexstar 11GPS telescope enhanced with the Hyperstar 3 lens system, coupled with my modified Canon 1000xs camera, seems to be especially well equipped to shoot many of the brighter Sharpless objects. I also like the Arizona connection based on the Flagstaff location of the United States Naval Observatory. Below, you can see my "Shiftless" images.

Click thumbnail to see full size image

Sh 2-9	Empty	Sh 2-25
Sh 2-30	Sh 2-45	Empty
Sh 2-49	Empty	Sh 2-105
Sh 2-108	Sh 2-111	Sh 2-111
Sh 2-117	Sh 2-117a	Sh 2-142
Sh 2-155	Sh 2-162	Sh 2-184
Sh 2-248	Sh 2-275	Sh 2-277
Sh 2-277a	Sh 2-279	Sh 2-281