NGC 6946

Right Ascension	20 : 34.8 (h:m)
Declination	+60 : 09 (deg:m)
Distance	10,000 (kly)
Visual Brightness	8.9 (mag)
Apparent Dimension	11 x 10 (arc min)

8.9-mag NGC 6946 was discovered by William Herschel.

NGC 6946 is a rather nearby spiral galaxy, which at one time was suspected to be an outlying member of the Local Group. It is highly obscured by interstellar matter of the Milky Way galaxy, as it is quite close to the galactic plane.

With the number of six supernovae which have been found in this galaxy, NGC 6946 is leading the statistics, perhaps together with M83.

In the SAC 110 best NGC object list. No. 108 in the RASC Finest NGC Objects list.

Last Modification: 29 Mar 1998, 12:20 MET