NGC 6946

Click on image for larger version.



 NGC 6946 is both a spectacular and dim galaxy in Cepheus. At a distance of 10 million light years, this galaxy is one of about a dozen nearby neighbors to the Milky Way. Like M83, this galaxy has had an enormous number of supernovae explosions in the past 60 years. If we could watch this galaxy with years passing as seconds- every moment or two we would see a star blow up! Click Here to see the largest version of the bottom image. Also, follow this link to another image of NGC 6946.

Equipment

20in RC Optical Systems telescope Operating at f/8.4
Paramount ME Robotic Telescope Mount
SBIG ST10XME CCD camera with color filter wheel

AND
Meade 16in LX200 telescope operating at f/10
SBIG ST8E CCD camera with color filter wheel

L R G B color production was used to create this f/8.4 image.

Luminance = 90 minutes binned 1x1
 Red = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Green = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 20 minutes binned 2x2

 L R G B color production was used to create the f/10 image. The values below are for each of two frames.

Luminance = 125 minutes binned 1x1
 Red = 20 minutes binned 2x2
Green = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 30 minutes binned 2x2
  • The f/10 (bottom) image averaged less than 1.8" with a majority of the data being at 1.4" for 900 second exposures. Technically the top frame has 30:30:30 minutes of RGB data.
  • One iteration of CCDsharp was applied to these images.
  • Digital Development (DDP) via Maxim/DL was also used in order to display the the very dim and very bright details of the image simultaneously.

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    Minimum credit line: Wendee Levy/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF (top image)
    Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF (bottom image)

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    Updated: 05/22/2003