RCW Catalogue

The RCW Catalogue (from Rodgers, Campbell & Whiteoak) is an astronomical catalogue of Hα-emission regions in the southern Milky Way, described in (Rodgers et al. 1960). It contains 182 objects, including many of the earlier Gum catalogue (84 items) objects.

The later Caldwell catalogue included some objects from the RCW catalogue. There is also some overlap with the Sharpless catalogue-2 (312 items), although that primarily covered the northern hemisphere, whereas RCW and Gum primarily covered the southern hemisphere.

The RCW catalogue was compiled by Alexander William Rodgers, Colin T. Campbell and John Bartlett Whiteoak. They catalogued southern nebulae while working under Bart Bok at the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia in the 1960s.

Examples[]

RCW	Name	Images	Names & Designations
RCW 11	RCW 11		Sh2-308, LBN 1052
RCW 34	RCW 34		Gum 19
RCW 36	RCW 36		Gum 20
RCW 42			Gum 26
RCW 38	RCW 38		RCW 38
RCW 49	RCW 49		Gum 29
RCW 57	RCW 57		NGC 3582, The Torchbearer[1]
RCW 75	Stock 16		Gum 48a, Stock 16
RCW 86	RCW 86		RCW 86
RCW 88	RCW 88		RCW 88
RCW 106
RCW 108			Gum 53
RCW 124	NGC 6302		Sh2-6, NGC 6302, Bug Nebula, PK 349+01 1, Butterfly Nebula, RCW 124, Gum 60, Caldwell 69
RCW 127	NGC 6334		ESO 392-EN 009, Sharpless 8, RCW 127, Gum 64, NGC 6334
RCW 131	NGC 6357		Sh2-11, NGC 6357, RCW 131, Gum 66, War and Peace Nebula
RCW 146	Lagoon Nebula		Sh2 25, RCW 146, Gum 72
RCW 147	Trifid Nebula		Sh2 30, M20, NGC 6514, RCW 147, Gum 76
RCW 160	Omega Nebula		Omega Nebula, M17, NGC 6618, Swan Nebula, Sharpless 45, RCW 160, Gum 81
RCW 165	Eagle Nebula		Sh2-49, Messier 16, NGC 6611, RCW 165, Gum 83
RCW 174	W 40		Sh2-64

List[]

NGC 3582, part of RCW 57, a large star-forming region in the Milky Way

See also[]

• Sharpless catalog
• Gum Catalog
• Caldwell catalogue
• List of Star-Forming Regions in the Local Group

References[]

• Rodgers, A. W.; Campbell, C. T.; Whiteoak, J. B. (1960), "A catalogue of Hα-emission regions in the southern Milky Way", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 121 (1): 103–110, Bibcode:1960MNRAS.121..103R, doi:10.1093/mnras/121.1.103

External links[]

• The RCW Catalog (details and photographs of objects)
• Galactic Explorers: Gum, Bok and Sharpless (history)
• ESO, RCW 86 video