Supernova Spotting in the Firework’s Galaxy
Distance: 10 Million Light Years
NGC 6946 is called the fireworks galaxy because stars in its spirals regularly go supernova. Like the Cigar Galaxy this is a starburst galaxy only this time our view is looking down on the galaxy from above.
Hubble has taken a glorious although not very deep picture of this galaxy. We won’t be able to get quite as sharp but I think by combining lucky imaging with regular data we might be able to go deeper and of course our wider view will catch more of the galaxy AND we might discover that a star or two has gone pop!
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-views-a-dazzling-fireworks-galaxy
There are some super lovely widefield images of this galaxy which show dust lanes and star clusters from our own galaxy in the forground. I’m hoping our regular imagers will be able to club together to get something even better than this fantastic image by LM10 on Reddit
Download Regular Imager's reference frame
Center (RA, Dec): | (308.353, 60.426) |
Center (RA, hms): | 20h 33m 24.833s |
Center (Dec, dms): | +60° 25′ 34.827″ |
Size: | 1.77 x 1.77 deg |
Radius: | 1.249 deg |
Pixel scale: | 1.59 arcsec/pixel |
Orientation: | Up is 331 degrees E of N |
Download Lucky Imager's reference frame
Center (RA, Dec): | (308.716, 60.142) |
Center (RA, hms): | 20h 34m 51.840s |
Center (Dec, dms): | +60° 08′ 30.874″ |
Size: | 25 x 25 arcmin |
Radius: | 0.295 deg |
Pixel scale: | 0.501 arcsec/pixel |
Orientation: | Up is 64.6 degrees E of N |