NGC 6946, Firework, and NGC 6939, The Star Cluster

NGC6946, also known as Fireworks Galaxy, is a beautiful spiral galaxy in the constellation Cepheus, near the border with Cygnus. I found it easy to find with NGC6939, the star cluster.

This part of the sky is dominated by the Milky Way and it is usually impossible to see other galaxies through the Milky Way because the are hidden by interstellar dust. We can see this dust in a large part of the image, roughly the half bottom-right part.

40 exposures of 5 minutes.
Camera : Canon EOS 1000D unfiltered
Telescope : Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor.
Mount : Takahashi EM-200 USD3.
Guiding : Orion Starshoot Autoguider on a William Optic Zenithstar 66SD refractor.
Outside temperature : 4°C
Sensor temperature : 8°C
Software : auto-guiding and acquisition with MaximDL, processing with Iris.
Location : Col de Restefond, France