The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, is known for having a high rate of supernovae production. During the last 100 years 10 supernovae have been discovered in NGC 6946. Probably, the light of new supernovae is travelling towards us. Who knows when will we see the next one? The last one was observed in 2017 as we can see in this older image of NGC 6946 https://www.flickr.com/photos/143850720@N07/34885239791/
This galaxy, located around 25.2 million light-years away from Earth, was once supposed to be part of our Local Group. Nowadays we know that it doesn't belong to it even though it's quite close to its boundaries. Discovered in 1798 by William Herschel, we can find it between the constellations of Cygnus and Cepheus, obscured by densely star populated regions of the plane of the Milky Way. In another much closer plane, but in the same frame, we can see the NGC 6939 open cluster, located around 4,000 light-years away from Earth. The background of the image is covered by IFN dust that can be easily detected with higher exposure images.
Image details:
L: 70x300"
RGB: 3x (20x180")
All images at 0 Gain -20ºC bin1
Total exposure: 8h50'
Equipment:
FSQ85ED telescope
Mesu200 mount
ASI 1600 MM-C Pro camera with ZWO EFW 8 pos
Guiding with ASI174MC and ZWO OAG
Software:
SGP, PHD2, APP, PIX.
Prades, Catalonia, Spain. November 2020.