The Tadpole Nebula, cataloged as Sharpless 2-236, is a sprawling emission nebula in Auriga that rewards patient wide-field imaging. Its glowing hydrogen clouds respond exceptionally well to narrowband filters, making it a favorite target for Hydrogen-alpha and full SHO palette processing. Because the region emits strongly in the red hydrogen band, imagers can capture rich detail even under moderately light-polluted skies with the right filters. The nebula’s namesake elongated dust-and-gas streamers demand adequate exposure depth to reveal their delicate structure against the surrounding star field.
Names and Catalog numbers
- Tadpole Nebula
- Sh2-236 (Sharpless 236)
Position and the cosmic neighborhood
The Tadpole Nebula sits high in the northern winter sky within Auriga, at a right ascension of 05h 22m and a declination of +33° 22′, placing it comfortably within reach of northern-hemisphere astrophotographers for much of the season. Its elevated declination means it climbs to a generous altitude, minimizing atmospheric extinction and giving imagers long, stable windows for stacking exposures. Framed against the rich Milky Way star fields of Auriga, the nebula shares this bright stretch of sky with numerous open clusters and other emission regions, offering plenty of scope for wider mosaics that place Sharpless 2-236 in its broader galactic context.
Nice to Know
- Its common name comes from the elongated, tadpole-like streamers of gas and dust that give the nebula its distinctive shape in deep exposures.
- The object carries the catalog designation Sharpless 2-236, marking it as part of the well-known Sharpless survey of emission nebulae.
- Lying roughly 13,100 light-years from Earth, it is a distant target whose faint structure benefits from long integration times.
- As a hydrogen-rich emission nebula, it is ideally suited to narrowband imaging, where Hydrogen-alpha data brings out its fine filamentary detail.
Brightness, distance and size
It lies about 13,100 light-years from Earth.
