Your guide to astrophotography

The galaxy NGC 6946 is around 25 million light years away located on the boundary of the constellations Cepheus and Cygnus. The Fireworks Galaxy is about half the size of the Milky Way.

Upon closer inspection of the image, you will notice a strange bright spot located above and to the right of the galaxy core. At first, it looks like a flaw in the image, but it is actually identified as the Red Ellipse (appears blue in the image). This area could be a super bubble or a supernova remnant. As for now, it is still unknown.

The galaxy NGC 5033 is somewhere between 40-60 million light years away. From initial observations, it looks pretty bland when compared to the amazing galaxies of M51 – The Whirlpool Galaxy or M63 – The Sunflower Galaxy. When we take a closer look, a few things become visible.

First, in the core of NGC 5033 is a very visible emission band (dark patch). This is most likely caused by extremely hot gas around the galaxy’s supermassive black hole.

The galaxy NGC 2403 (Caldwell 7), doesn’t have a special name. It isn’t flashy like M51 – The Whirlpool Galaxy or M63 – The Sunflower Galaxy, but it is fairly close to our Milky Way Galaxy. It lies 8 million light years away. Many of the redder areas of the galaxy are active star forming regions, which show up with a hydrogen-alpha filter.

NGC 2403 is a member of the M81 Local Group of galaxies, which includes the galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major.