NGC 6946, sometimes referred to as the Fireworks Galaxy, is a grand design, face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus.
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
NGC 6946, sometimes referred to as the Fireworks Galaxy, is a grand design, face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years or 7.72 megaparsecs, similar to the distance of M101 in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group, but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6946]
Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | Waxing Gibbous |
|---|---|
| Camera: | Seestar S50 Pro (4K Sony IMX585 sensor) |
| Optics: | 260 mm focal length, f/5.2, 50 mm aperture |
| Filter: | IRCUT |
| Binning: | 1x1 |
| Stacking: | StackingWizard, 356 of 375 frames stacked |
| Date: | 2026-09-24 |
| Number of images: | 356 |
| Exposure per image: | 60 s |
| Total imaging time: | 5 h 56 min |
AstroWizard Processing
- GraXpert background extraction (0.5)
- Color calibration
- BlurXTerminator (0.6)
- GraXpert denoise (linear, 0.6)
- NoiseXTerminator (linear, 0.9) (x2)
- Stretch (deep)
- Darken background (x5)
- Darken background (starless)
- Star removal (StarXTerminator)
- NoiseXTerminator (non-linear, 0.6)
- Contrast (pop) adjustment (x2)
- Saturation adjustment
- Star recombination (screen blend)
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
NGC 6946, sometimes referred to as the Fireworks Galaxy, is a grand design, face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years or 7.72 megaparsecs, similar to the distance of M101 in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group, but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6946]
Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | Waxing Gibbous |
|---|---|
| Camera: | Seestar S50 Pro (4K Sony IMX585 sensor) |
| Optics: | 260 mm focal length, f/5.2, 50 mm aperture |
| Filter: | IRCUT |
| Binning: | 1x1 |
| Stacking: | StackingWizard, 356 of 375 frames stacked |
| Date: | 2026-09-24 |
| Number of images: | 356 |
| Exposure per image: | 60 s |
| Total imaging time: | 5 h 56 min |
AstroWizard Processing
- Color calibration
- BlurXTerminator (0.6)
- NoiseXTerminator (0.6) (x3)
- Darken background
