This is a LRGB image of NGC 6946, the Fireworks Galaxy. It was given this name due to the unusual number of supernovae observed in this galaxy over many years. This year it did not disappoint as SN 2017eaw has been observed. This is a prominent SN, and I have annotated it in a mosaic compilation version of this image. The galaxy is approximately 22 mly distant, located on the border between Cepheus and Cygnus, with apparent magnitude 9.6 and apparent size 11.5 x 9.5 arcmin.

I am impressed with the relatively bright very red (more orange in my image) star, which I have labeled as 3UCAC301-140830 with magnitude 9.53. Stellarium lists it as mag 10.00 with color index 3.50. Cartes du Ciel lists it as UCAC4-751-062996 at mag 10.51 and color index 5.16. Oddly it was not labeled from the Tycho catalog in my annotation. To my knowledge this is the reddest star I've ever imaged in color.

Acquisition Details - Sequence Generator Pro

Nights of 2017-07-10 (L), -11 through -14 (LRGB)

Federal Way, WA - Ben's Backyard - SW of Septic Tank

L: 30 x 600s at 1x1 binning

R: 15 x 600s at 1x1 binning

G: 14 x 600s at 1x1 binning

B: 12 x 600s at 1x1 binning

First use of Optec FastFocus Secondary Mirror Focusing System

Processing Details - PixInsight

L, R, G, B

ImageCalibration with BIAS, DARK, FLAT

SubframeSelector with weighting of SNRWeight, Eccentricity, FWHM

StarAlignment registration

ImageIntegration

DrizzleIntegration

DynamicCrop and VerticalMirror

DynamicBackgroundExtraction - coarse and fine stages

Synthetic L

ImageIntegration of L, R, B, G for Synthetic L

ImageSolver for later plate solving

Deconvolution

MultiscaleLinearTransform

Stretching with HistogramTransformation - matching RGB stretching in multiple stages

HDRMultiscaleTransform

LinearStretch - gentle black color adjustment

RGB

ChannelCombination of R, G, B

DynamicBackgroundExtraction

Linear Stretch - gentle black color adjustment and matching of L

Stretching with HistogramTransformation - matching L stretching in multiple stages

HDRMultiscaleTransform - matching L

CurvesTransformation - for brightening color contrast

Linear Stretch - another gentle tweak

ChannelExtraction - of L, a, b - L was discarded

LRGB

ChannelCombination of Synthetic L and a and b from RGB

SCNR - mild green neutralization at 25%

CurvesTransformation for final LRGB image

Additional Processing

Inverted L image with reverse stretching to flatten the image out a little bit

Annotation of final L image

Creation of Mosaic image with SN circles (done in ImageJ)

Additional Notes

I am still dealing with alignment issues. You may note that the brighter stars show an elongation. I am still trying to diagnose the issue but have my suspicions this may be due to problems with the focal reducer. The other possibility is non-orthogonality between baffle tube and primary. I've been reluctant to dig into this too deeply, particularly as I wish to be imaging at this time.

Overall I'm pleased with the results despite the alignment issue. I will revisit the ColorCalibration step again. I attempted to use eXcalibrator but ran into issue with it not reading my FIT files. I am still investigation this problem. I also note that the HDRMultiscaleTransform produced interesting results and presented the galaxy with different contrast than I'm used to. I may tweak that a little bit because when all is said and done, I feel some detail got washed out with the brightness and the coloring. This is one time where it actually looks better when you blow it up a bit.