The Firworks Galaxy

Time for some Fireworks!

Presenting my last galaxy shot of the season, NGC6946 or the Fireworks galaxy along with open cluster NGC 6939.

This image was taken from Bortle 7.5 skies. In early May, when Cygnus was rising late, I decided to spend time on this target which I imaged 3 years back with some modest equipment. I spent about 9 hrs using LRGB filters from Astrodon. Galaxy imaging from Bortle 7 is possible!

Open cluster NGC 6939 is approximately 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. The small, faint, vertical galaxy in the top left is cataloged as PGC64824. There are several other galaxies in the frame which becomes visible once you remove the stars.

NGC 6946 is a spiral galaxy about 22 million light years from Earth located between the constellations Cepheus and Cygnus. lt's about 40000 light years across making it about a third the size of the Milky Way. NGC 6946 got the nickname "Fireworks Galaxy from its ten supernovas observed over the past century.

📌 View this image on AstroBin:
👉 https://app.astrobin.com/u/AstroDarks?i=x88ho7

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👉 https://www.instagram.com/astrodarks/