Sh2-34: The Forgotten Nebula

Some nebulae shout for attention, like Orion blazing away in the night sky. Others, like Sh2-34, whisper — faint, delicate, and sprawling. But give them the right filters, enough exposure time, and suddenly they bloom into something unforgettable.

This is my image of Sh2-34, a huge hydrogen emission nebula in the constellation of Sagittarius.

It’s part of the Sharpless Catalogue of H II regions, put together back in the 1950s.

To the eye, it’s too faint to show, but with narrowband filters, the detail spills out like smoke drifting through the Milky Way.

What you’re seeing

• The teal/blue regions are oxygen (OIII) emissions, glowing like cool gas.

• The golden areas are sulphur (SII) and hydrogen-alpha (Ha), heated and lit up by hot young stars nearby.

• Together they weave a vast canvas of star-forming material, hanging about 1,300 light-years away.

The whole nebula is basically a stellar nursery, where gas and dust are clumping together under gravity’s pull to one day ignite into new suns. The light reaching my camera tonight actually left Sh2-34 around the time humans were just starting to paint cave walls.

Photographing Sh2-34

This target is sneaky. It doesn’t punch through light pollution easily, and its faintness means long integration is key. Narrowband filters (I shot in SHO) are essential to cut through the noise and reveal those filamentary details. Because of its size, wide fields of view work best — too much zoom and you miss the sprawling beauty.

Why I love it

Sh2-34 isn’t famous. You won’t see it on T-shirts or tattoos like Orion or the Eagle Nebula. But that’s why I adore it — it’s like catching a secret whispered by the universe, something only a patient astrophotographer gets to reveal.

So here it is: my take on a subtle, sprawling jewel in the Sharpless catalogue. Proof that even the quiet corners of the Milky Way have stories to tell — if you’re willing to listen.