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NGC-6946

NGC-6946 Spiral galaxy in Cepheus

NGC-6946

NGC-6946 is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Cepheus, near the Cepheus/Cygnus border. It lies 25 million light years from Earth and is 40,000 light years in diameter. It was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1798. Because it lies close to the plane of our own Milky Way galaxy, NGC-6946 is heavily obscured by intervening interstellar dust and gas. NGC-6946 is undergoing intense star formation, and is classed as a Starburst Galaxy.
This image, acquired on August 12, 2015, is a 1 hour 40 minute integration of 10 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2, using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H694C color CCD camera, operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.

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