NGC6939 NGC6946

After Spending some time in the realm of Hercules I let a finger decide in what direction I should travel. I headed north skimming slowly across the underbelly of Draco when a globular caught my attention. Near to it was the wispy tendrils of a galaxy. It was very faint but as the moon was setting behind the trees skies were lovely and dark. After confirming where I was I took a quick test shot and yippee a lovely little face on galaxy lent me a few photons of it's light.
now the tekkie stuff

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6946 and Open Cluster NGC 6939 are located about 2 degrees southwest of Eta Cepheus.
NGC 6946 is a 9.7 magnitude spiral galaxy that was discovered by William Herschel on September 9, 1798 and is about 10 arc minutes in diameter.

It is a relatively close galaxy at a distance of about 10 million light years, and was once suspected by Edwin Hubble of being a member of the Local Group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, but today it is not believed to be a member. Because we are looking at it through the plane of our own galaxy, it is highly obscured by dust.

NGC 6946 is sometimes called the Fireworks Galaxy because of the number of supernovae that have been discovered there and the galaxy's prodigious rate of star formation.

By contrast, open cluster NGC 6939, seen about 40 arc minutes northwest of NGC 6946, is located inside of our own galaxy at a distance of approximately 5,800 light years. It is just by coincidence that these two objects lie close to each other in the same line of sight.

NGC 6939's total brightness is about 8th magnitude and it contains about 80 stars in its 8 arc-minute diameter and its brightest member is about 12th magnitude.

We have here 92 30 second unguided frames No Flats or darks. total 46 Minutes

It feels so good to get out there again!!!!!

M92, NGC6341

I dont really believe what I saw last night but from dusk till dawn we had a clear night temp hovered around +2. At around midnight i could see the old summer favourites coming into view. Dew heaters on and I focused on M92 somewhat overlooked because of its proximity to its big sister M13, I dont really know why because it's a wonderful sight in my 90mm.

At a distance of 26,000 light years only 900 Light years futher on than M13

16 variables have been discovered in this globular, 14 of which are of RR Lyrae type, while one of them is one of the very few eclipsing binaries in globular clusters.

Late last year I purchased one of the generic field flatteners. I have to say it doesnt work. will just have to save a few pennies for the Williams mk111 version.

Anyway Here is a cropped and stacked set of 76 unguided 30 second JPEGS Images giving a total of 38 Minutes. No darks of flats used.

It was just great to get outside and let some of the stresses of work float away

Just My Luck

Well the title say's it all. As a defender of her majesty's realm, I have been dealt a rather long series of night duties, probably going to extend till june! But what really bugs is that for the last 7 nights we have had lovely clear crisp cold skies and yes I am working. Every week I am off on rest week is cloudy damp and miserable you can see where I am coming from now. Here's hoping for a clear hour or so next week . I want desperatly to try the 50mm f1.8 lens and capture some photons.Oh well better get in the shower and get ready for another 12 hour stint. Hope to post something a little more interesting soon. Many thanks to all my followers and visitors from all over our little blue spot (as seen by voyagers 1 & 2. So enjoy the clear skies for the next few days because its me who jinx's the whole thing and finds us cloud not you.