The Hidden Galaxy - IC 342

[petevasey]

IC 342 in Camelopardalis is known as the 'Hidden Galaxy' because it is viewed through our own Milky Way galaxy and is obscured by clouds of gas and dust which give it a reddish hue. At around 75,000 light years in diameter it is not particularly large as galaxies go, but it is quite large in the sky - approximately 20 arc-minutes in diameter (2/3 full Moon), and if it was not obscured might be visible to the naked eye in dark skies. I first imaged it in 2006, but felt this wonderful face on spiral deserved another visit. The night of 31st. August  was particularly clear with a decent interval of fully dark sky, so gave me the opportunity. QSI 683 on RC10 with SXAO unit. Luminance 14 x 10 minutes, RGB each 6 x 10 minutes, all binned 2x2

Cheers,

Peter

[JamesF]

I didn't know of this galaxy.  The number of stars in front of it is astonishing.  Being face-on must make it harder, too.

James

[geoflewis]

That's a cracking image Peter,

It was definitely worth revisiting it and I love the scale. I've never imaged it, so seeing your rendition inspires me to try for it with my C14+Optec combo.

Cheers, Geof

[Davey-T]

Excellent image Peter, processing must be tricky, it's on my list of galaxies to capture, IIRC Olly posted an image of it a while ago which bought it to my attention.

Dave

[tomato]

First class result, great colour and lots of detail.

[ollypenrice]

Good going, Peter, especially on star control which is the bugbear of this target.

Olly

Edit: another thing to say about it is that it is about the same size on the sky as M101. That's big!

Edited September 3, 2019 by ollypenrice

[peter shah]

super scale....fabulous star colour...nice!

[smerral]

Super shot of a beautiful spiral.

[petevasey]

Thanks everybody - most kind.

The full size image (1640x1230) is now on my web site here.  Noise a little more apparent there - probably could do with another full night of subs.  It needed an awful lot of stretching!

Cheers,

Peter

Edited September 3, 2019 by petevasey