Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  Fireworks Galaxy  ·  NGC 6946
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NGC6946, Rob Johnson
NGC6946
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NGC6946

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NGC6946, Rob Johnson
NGC6946
Powered byPixInsight

NGC6946

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Description

The fireworks galaxy amongst the rich starfields of the Milky Way, it gets its name because it has had ten observed supernovae in the last century."We are able to marvel at NGC 6946 as it is a face-on galaxy, which means that we see the galaxy “facing” us, rather than seeing it from the side (known as edge-on). The Fireworks Galaxy is further classified as an intermediate spiral galaxy and as a starburst galaxy. The former means the structure of NGC 6946 sits between a full spiral and a barred spiral galaxy, with only a slight bar in its center, and the latter means it has an exceptionally high rate of star formation. The galaxy resides 25.2 million light-years away, along the border of the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus" Credit ESA.

Taken over 4 nights during August hoping to gather more data over this time but most of the nights were troubled with high clouds and gusts of wind so about half of all frames were discarded. A favourite of mine, I like the rich background of stars in place of the often barren regions for Coma-Virgo galaxies.

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