No better way to celebrate Independence Day than catching some photons from the Fireworks Galaxy! This is a beautiful face-on galaxy located in the constellation Cygnus about 22 million light years away. It is very close to the plane of our own galaxy and partly obscured by our own galactic dust and stars. Still a beautiful sight peering out of our home galaxy into the vastness of space.

Shot the nights of 6.30.14 from Southern Utah
Atik 314L+ Monochrome at -11C
Orion Thin OAG
8" F4 OTA with Sky Watcher F4 CC
Atlas EQ-G
Nautilus FW + Orion 2" RGB Filters
L 22 x 5 minutes
RGB 16 x 2.5 minutes
14 Darks
DSS and Photoshop