Sharpless 63 is a beautiful nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. Also known as LBN 86 it is classified as an HII region. Deep exposures reveal a rich field, surrounded by the faint galactic cirrus. Some tiny background galaxies can also be seen around the field.

The “Catalogue of HII Regions”, by Stewart Sharpless, presented 313 HII regions north of declination -27º. Sharpless had first published in 1953 the first “Sharpless catalogue”, which was then improved and continued with analysis of plates from the Palomar Sky Atlas, published in 1959. In its 63rd entry this nebula is catalogued, with a diameter of 55’. [1]

Sharpless 63’s appearance is strikingly different from the red-H-alpha characteristic of emission nebulae. It looks a lot like a molecular cloud or even a dark nebula, where the gas and dust condense to form newborn stars, and is associated with MBM 158 and MBM 159 molecular clouds [2]. It is not easy to find relevant information about this object on the internet, and there are relatively few images of it.

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There are not so many DSLR images of this nebula. Most images are made with dedicated cooled CCD (or CMOS) cameras. I find it stunningly beautiful, and it was a great challenge to capture: the dust is incredibly faint, barely visible in the stretched subexposures, requiring good skies, long integration times and careful processing. It was captured in my July’s expedition to my dark sky site, from challenging conditions: the ambient temperature plummeted to near-freezing: good for my uncooled sensor, but challenging for the “human operations” part of imaging =D. That morning the telescope tube and site was covered in frost, making a breathtaking sight.

Constructive criticism, comments and suggestions are more than welcome in the comments section. Thank you for taking your time to look at this image!

Date: 07/07/2019

Location: MG and GO, Brazil. Dark-Rural Skies (Bortle 2-3, calculated SQM ~21.7)

Camera: Canon EOS T5/1200D (modded), at ISO 1600

Optics: 150/750mm ATM Newtonian Telescope (optics by Sandro Coletti) + TS-Optics MaxField 2" Coma Corrector

Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5, tracking, guided

Exposure Detail: 65x180s. Total integration 195min

[1] S. Sharpless. “A Catalogue of H II Regions.” Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 4, p.257, 1959.

[2] Jim Thommes, Sh2-63.