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Contains:  NGC 6946
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The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12, 


            Steven Bellavia
The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12
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The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12

Technical card

Dates:Oct. 4, 2019

Frames:Astronomik L2 UV/IR Cut: 39x180" (gain: 120.00) -15C bin 1x1

Integration: 1.9 hours

Darks: ~30

Avg. Moon age: 6.22 days

Avg. Moon phase: 37.79%

Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 4.00

Mean SQM: 20.00

Mean FWHM: 4.50

Temperature: 7.50

Basic astrometry details job: 2974720

RA center: 20h 34' 53"

DEC center: +60° 8' 56"

Pixel scale: 0.954 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 181.402 degrees

Field radius: 0.382 degrees

Resolution: 2400x1600

Data source: Backyard


NGC 6946 (Caldwell12, PGC 65001, UGC 11597, Arp 29) - The Fireworks Galaxy is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, in the constellation Cepheus . It is 25.2 million light years from Earth. Discovered by William Herschel on 9 September 1798, this well-studied galaxy has a diameter of approximately 40,000 light-years, about one-third of the Milky Way's size and it contains roughly half the number of stars as the Milky Way.
It is called the "Fireworks Galaxy" because it has an unusually high rate of supernovae production, with 10 discovered in the last 100 years, compared to our Milky Way galaxy, whose rate averages just one supernova event per century. This is the more remarkable as our Galaxy comprises twice as many stars



Steven Bellavia
License: None (All rights reserved)

Sky plot

Sky plot


The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12, 


            Steven Bellavia