NGC6946 and NGC6939, Fireworks Galaxy and Cluster
NGC6946 and NGC6939 in one go!
Imaging with RGB filters from the center of the light polluted Athens, Greece with the moon shining brightly on top, is hardly ideal but i gave it a go anyway!
It did not turn as bad as i had originally anticipated so here you go : A galaxy and a cluster in the same image :D
NGC 6946, (also known as the Fireworks Galaxy, Arp 29, and Caldwell 12), is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 18 million light-years away, in the constellations Cepheus and Cygnus. It was discovered by William Herschel on September 9, 1798. NGC 6946 is highly obscured by interstellar matter of the Milky Way galaxy, as it is quite close to the galactic plane. The diameter of the galaxy is approximately 40,000 light-years or just about a third of the size of the Milky Way.
Nine supernovae (SN 1917A, SN 1939C, SN 1948B, SN 1968D, SN 1969P, SN 1980K, SN 2002hh, SN 2004et, and SN 2008S) in the last 60 years or so, have been observed in NGC 6946.
Appearing in the same visual field, just 40′ northwest of NGC 6946 you will find NGC 6939, a dim open star cluster. Its eerie glow is partially resolved into stars at medium power, in the northern part of the cluster you will see three stars disposed in a triangle. Apertures larger than ten inches will resolve the cluster completely, and NGC 6939 takes on a kite-like appearance with brighter stars defining a kite shape.
SW ED80
Skywatcher .85x Focal Reducer & Corrector
SBIG 8300M
HEQ5 Pro
Guiding camera: QHY CCD QHY5 mono
Filters used: Baader LRGB
Starlight Xpress Starlight Xpress FW 5*2"
Resolution: 3260x2444
Baader Blue 2": 40x180" -5C bin 1x1
Baader Green 2": 40x180" -5C bin 1x1
Baader Red 2": 40x180" -5C bin 1x1
With IDAS LPS filter stacked on top
Integration: 6.0 hours
Darks: ~50
Flats: ~15
Bias: ~300
Avg. Moon age: 20.25 days
Avg. Moon phase: 69.66%
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 9.00
Temperature: 20.00
RA center: 56.989 degrees
DEC center: 24.176 degrees
Pixel scale: 2.135 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: -7.715 degrees
Field radius: 1.130 degrees
Locations: Athens, Greece
Dates: Oct. 3, 2015
Projection origin.. [1630.477297 1222.559320]pix -> [RA:+20 32 08.12 Dec:+60 25 20.25]
Resolution ........ 2.133 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -7.336 deg
Focal ............. 522.21 mm
Pixel size ........ 5.40 um
Field of view ..... 1d 55' 53.2" x 1d 26' 52.8"
Image center ...... RA: 20 32 08.238 Dec: +60 25 21.56
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 20 39 20.032 Dec: +61 15 07.34
top-right ...... RA: 20 23 28.315 Dec: +61 00 00.38
bottom-left .... RA: 20 40 29.498 Dec: +59 48 40.65
bottom-right ... RA: 20 25 18.211 Dec: +59 34 12.85
Captured with Main Sequence Software SequenceGeneratorPro
Processed in PixInsight
