Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  Fireworks Galaxy  ·  NGC 6939  ·  NGC 6946
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NGC 6946 - Fireworks Galaxy, Paul Ricker
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NGC 6946 - Fireworks Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 6946 - Fireworks Galaxy, Paul Ricker
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NGC 6946 - Fireworks Galaxy

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Description

For the Fourth of July, here we have NGC 6946, the Fireworks Galaxy, and NGC 6939, an open cluster. NGC 6946 is a starburst galaxy about 7.7 Mpc away on the border between Cygnus and Cepheus. Ten supernovae have been observed in it since 1917, which on a per-unit-stellar-mass basis is about 20x the rate in the Milky Way. NGC 6939 is about a billion years old (making it pretty old for an open cluster) and lies about 1.1 kpc away in Cepheus.

We had plenty of real fireworks going off in various towns on the horizon. While it was a nice cloudless, moonless evening, the relative humidity was about 90% -- pretty common for central Illinois.

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NGC 6946 - Fireworks Galaxy, Paul Ricker