NGC6946 in Cepheus / Cygnus

(RA 20h 34.8m , Dec. +60°09', 8.8 mag., 13 x 13 arcmin.)

This large spiral galaxy on Cygnus / Cepheus border forms an interesting pair with a nearby open cluster NGC6939. Under dark skies both are detectable in binoculars. Together with M83, NGC6946 shares the record number of observed supernovae. To find NGC6946, look about 2° SSW of h Cephei (see finder chart below).

The above image was taken on June 28 & 30 and July 2, 1998 from Sooke, BC. Cookbook 245 LDC CCD camera was used on Celestron Ultima 8 f6.3 telescope autoguided with Cookbook 211 LDC camera on a piggybacked 500mm f8 telephoto lens. It is composed of white exposures (11 x 240 sec.) as well as cyan, magenta and yellow-filtered integrations (5 x 240 sec., 5 x 240 sec. and 2 x 240 sec., respectively) combined with AIP4WIN. Color image was then re-processed in Lab color space using Corel PhotoPaint 8.

North is to the right.

Map created in Guide 7.0 - 7°45' x 7°45'. North is up.

Number of visitors:

© Jan Wisniewski