SH2-178 was originally thought to be a hydrogen emission nebula like most Sharpless objects, however, it is now known to be associated with the giant molecular cloud known as the Polaris Flare. This region contains a huge amount of dust that resembles cirrus clouds which reflect the light of the Milky Way. These clouds of dust reside well above the plane of the Milky Way and are also known as Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN).

I don't know why but I really love these dark dusty areas and this region has been on my to do list for a long time so it is a milestone of sorts. I first attempted this over two years ago but had many problems. I then attempted it again last year with but again - problems. This year was the charm. Why was this so tough? IFNs in general are very faint and require very dark skies - my Bortle 5 (at best) skies are pushing the limit. Nothing was in any of the subframes which is always disconcerting. The other reason this is difficult is that guiding close Polaris is tough as a tiny fluctuation is magnified. Even though I was only collecting 90 second frames at 200 mm FL, guiding is necessary - at least for my equipment. So if you want a challenge and you like being frustrated, why look no further, this object is for you.

This image also represents my second light with the ZWO ASI2600MC. I had it attached to my Sirius Mount in the astronomy shed and was guiding this time. Although this camera will mainly be used with a portable rig I wanted to get more practice. This object was a great learning experience as I collected over 400 frames and attempted to stack them using PIs WBPP like I always do. Well after 14 hours it did everything but Image Integration before I got no space left. After doing some research and posting questions, I purchased a 1 TB external SSD which will be for stacking purposes only. I then stacked it again with WBPP and after 26 hours I got an image. This was still too long so I did some more research and did some adjustments in PI and learned a bit about swap directories. Also, I had the generated drizzle data selected even though I was not drizzling so that may have been adding to the time.

I did have to crop the image on the right side as my neighbor's tree got in the way. When I started this there were no leaves on the trees so I did not realize it was a problem as I could have adjusted it. In addition to the dust, the stars were well shaped and quite colorful. I am very happy how the ASI2600 handles stars, even bright ones. I left Polaris slightly yellow rather turn it blue since it is a yellow supergiant - Polaris is actually a triple star system.


Dates: 4-30, 5-17, 5-19, 5-21

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