Astronomy Picture of the Day - NGC 6946 and NGC 6939

NASA ^ | 4 Jul, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Alberto Pisabarro

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 and open star cluster NGC 6939 share this cosmic snapshot, composed with over 68 hours of image data captured with a small telescope on planet Earth. The field of view spans spans about 1 degree or 2 full moons on the sky toward the northern constellation Cepheus. Seen through faint interstellar dust clouds near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the stars of open cluster NGC 6939 are 5,600 light-years in the distance, near bottom right in the frame. Face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 is at top left, but lies some 22 million light-years away. In the last 100 years, 10 supernovae have been discovered in NGC 6946, the latest one seen in 2017. By comparison, the average rate of supernovae in our Milky Way is about 1 every 100 years or so. Of course, NGC 6946 is also known as The Fireworks Galaxy.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[MtnClimber]

The Fireworks Galaxy just in time for Independence Day festivities.

[No name given]

Wow.

[DannyTN]

“Face On”
Reminds me of why they canceled the leper hockey game.
There was a face off in the corner.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

Small telescope

How small? I have a 3.5" telescope and I never saw that galaxy.

[Islander7]

https://telescopius.com/

My 6” RC with ZWO533 OSC camera frames is nicely!

[telescope115]

How appropriate! Nice!