NGC6946, known as the Fireworks Galaxy and Caldwell 12, is a face-on spiral galaxy on the boundary between the constellations Cepheus and Cyngnus. It is located 25.2 Million Light years away and is about the 1/3 of the size of our own Milkyway Galaxy.

I first took a shot of this galaxy about a year ago now and I was delighted with the results! It was one of my first galaxy images and I could actually see the arms of the galaxy!

During the past few nights I revisited this target and I shot it with two Telescope at the same time. In one, I used an One-Shot-Color Camera and in the other (This one) I used a Mono camera with L,R,G,&B filters. I wanted to see the difference I would get with both approaches.

The OSC version was the result of 130 frames of 150 sec for a total exposure of about 5.5 hours. The Mono version had roughly the same level of exposure with 46 subs of 120 seconds for the L,R,G,&B filters for a total of about 6 hours.

As it turns out, I had a parameter set wrong and the images ended of being rotated 90 degrees from one another. Despite that, take a look at both of them and tell which one you like better.

Here are the image details for this one:

45 x 120 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C ZWO Gen II L Filter

45 x 120 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C ZWO Gen II R Filter

45 x 120 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C ZWO Gen II G Filter

45 x 120 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C ZWO Gen II B Filter

50 Bias exposures

25x 120 seconds Dark exposures

50 L Flats

50 R Flats

50 G Flats

50 B Flats

Scope: Astrophysics 130mm Starfire F/8.35 APO refractor

Guide Scope: Televue 76mm Doublet

Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-pro with ZWO Filter wheel with ZWO filter set

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini

Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2

Mount: Ioptron CEM60

Polar Alignment: Ioptron Ipolar integrated alignment cameras

Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller

Image Processing: Pixinsight, Photoshop, along with Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second guessing, frequent processor's regret, significant frustration and the occasional swear word...…..