2000A&A...353L..13B

We present sub-millimetre images of the spiral galaxy NGC 6946 at 450 and 850µm. The observations have been carried out using the scan/map imaging mode of the Sub-millimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) at the James Clark Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The comparison with a ¹²CO(2-1) line emission map from IRAM and with an U-band image, clearly shows that the 850µm emission is associated with molecular gas and bright star-forming regions, tracing the spiral arms. We place an upper limit of 0.7 for the V-band optical depth of dust associated with a diffuse atomic component.