It was back to galaxies for my next target. I wanted to try to image the Fireworks Galaxy or NGC 6946. It amazes me how these interstellar bodies were found so long ago. William Herschel first documented this galaxy in 1798. Wow!
The target is somewhat difficult for my set-up because you have to image it through some interstellar matter of the Milky Way. It took approximately 1.4 hours of light gathering to finally get the final picture. However the work was worth it. The intermediate spiral galaxy is full of some beautiful color and really does look like a firework bursting in the sky. This firework is only about one-third the size of our own Milky Way galaxy and is only 18 million light year away! My brain has a hard time comprehending that distance. It has an even harder time realizing the light my scope is gathering from this galaxy took millions of years to reach the Earth. We are literally looking back in time and it is beautiful sight to see.
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| The Firework galxy take with my Celestron 8 inch SCT |
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| The details of the final picture of the Galaxy |
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| Location of the Fireworks Galaxy in our sky |
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