NGC 6946, Fireworks Galaxy, 9 Jul 2013 (David Dearden)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cepheus (Cep) · Contains: Fireworks Galaxy · NGC 6946

NGC 6946, Fireworks Galaxy, 9 Jul 2013

This is an easy find because there are nearby visible if not very bright Cepheus stars on which to align the Telrad. I had it dead center in the imager on the first try (and this was obviously luck!). I can't see this galaxy even at 10 s imager exposures, but used asterisms to get it lined up. It has low surface brightness. Evidently it is one of the most prolific producers of supernovae, hence the name. Conditions are poor again tonight: lots of smoke in the air (which is why I chose this target, because it is higher in the sky so less smoke), lots of gusty wind, and hot. Chiller running at 2.5 A, 21 °C. Wind died down after midnight.

Date: 9 Jul 2013

Subject: NGC 6946, Fireworks Galaxy

Scope: AT8IN + HPS Coma Corrector

Filter: None

Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors)

Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 1.14.2

Camera: DSI IIc (chiller at ~2.5 A, T = 19-20 °C)

Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.1.7, no dither

Exposure: 42x300 s

Stacking: Neb 3, bad pixel map, bias included, normalize first, trans+rot align, 1.5 SD stack.

Processing: StarTools 1.3 Crop; Wipe:Color & Brightness; Develop 96.24%; Contrast; HDR:Equalize; Sharpen; Deconvolute: 2.0 pix; Track; Color:Bottom 2.0, Top Full, Sat 699%; Magic:Shrink 1 (twice); Life:Less=More. CS6+Astronomy Tools Increase star color; deep space noise reduction. StarTools 1.3 Repair:Core Avg on brightest stars only; Magic:Shrink 7 pix with Mask Grow 8 pix on brightest stars only. CS6+Astronomy Tools Layer mask overlay high pass filter; AstroFrame.

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6652771
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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