NGC-6946 The "Fireworks" Galaxy

NGC-6946, sometimes referred to as the "Fireworks Galaxy" is a face-on intermediate type SAB spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus. It is located right on the border between the constellations of Cygnus and Cepheus. It lies 25 million light years from Earth and is 87,000 light years in diameter. This galaxy was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1798. It is an active starburst galaxy and has been the host of numerous supernovae in recent years.
This image was acquired on the evening of October 7/8, 2023, and in a 2 hour and 16 minute integration of 2 minute exposures through the C-11 at f/6.3 using the Starizona Reducer/Corrector 6.3 vIII, and the ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro one-shot color imager, operating at -10 degrees below ambient and binned 1X1. Imaging sequence and guiding by N.I.N.A. Stacking, color balance & background color removal by Maxim DL 5. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, DeepSky Colors, and NoiseWare.