IC342

IC342 is a spiral galaxy, oriented only slightly away from the plane of our own galaxy. As a consequence, when you image IC342, you are peering through lots of dust and debris of our own galaxy. This dust scatters blue light more than red, hence the "muddy red" effect. Some imagers attempt to inject the lost blue back into the galaxy but I've attempted to go for "natural" colours.  I decided to heavily crop the image to show the core and dust lane details.  Even with a c9hour exposure, the dust lanes are still a bit too faint.....  LIGHTS: 53 x 600s; DARKS: 40; BIAS: 100; FLATS: 40 all at -20C.