SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
bellavia
Location of Photo:
Smithfield, VA
Date/Time of photo:
July 14, 2026, 12:00 to 4:00 AM EDT
Equipment:
SvBony Sv535 105mm lens, ZWO ASI 294MM camera, SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro equatorial mount
Description:
Almost all astrophotographers start with their scope pointing at or near Polaris, the North Star. So I decided to stick around this part of the sky for a while, and capture the Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN) around it, along with some other nice deep space objects Polaris is dead center and on the lower right, you can see the open cluster NGC 188, or the "Polarissima cluster", and LBN 628 in Cepheus on the lower left, as well as SH2-178, and others. The Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN) near Polaris, often called the Polaris Flare, is estimated to be roughly 500 light-years away from Earth. This faint cosmic dust is located above the Milky Way's disk. Because it lies relatively close to the edge of our galaxy, it is illuminated not by a single star, but by the combined glow of hundreds of bill
