Taking an inventory of the Messier objects that I targeted so far made me think about: what else do I have already. And since the Sharpless catalog is one of the more interesting ones, I decided to do an inventory on them as well. This took a while, there are quite some data collected since I (seriously) started in 2018. And to top it off, after I counted all of them I found out that this image is exactly the 100th Sharpless that I aimed at, so just in time to present the overall catalog in versions D, E and F.
Sh2-304 came to my attention when I saw Gary's (
@Gary Imm) image (
https://www.astrobin.com/1611ni/?nc=collection&nce=1924) not too long ago. It was just the perfect time, it is pretty far south in the sky, and I do not have a huge window between the houses and trees going that far south. And with the weather pattern still being not the greatest (to say the least) I had to take the opportunity.
This Sharpless is one of several that do not shine as nicely as several others, a typical Hα only area, so really not much to "play around" with. Stars for those images always important so that it does not become too boring.
Will I go now for all Sharpless images? In time, it will get filled up, I am pretty sure, but getting them all might be a stretch. The good thing: when I ask myself which target I should go for next, well, I will look at the overview images and can select the ones that are still showing an empty spot 😊.
Carpe Noctem!
* This image was not and will not be submitted for IOTD consideration
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