John Herschel discovered NGC 6178 = h3638 on 27 Jul 1834 and noted "middle of a small group of pB stars." On a later sweep (20 Apr 1836) he recorded "Chief * 9m of a small, bright clustering group of from 12 to 20 pL stars, with stragglers." His position is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/4/86): about 15 stars in a triangular outline with mag 8 SAO 226939 at the NW vertex and similar star (SAO 226941) at the south vertex. A 10th magnitude star marks the NE vertex. Fainter stars mag 10-14 are inside the triangle. Appears fairly distinctive in the field.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb