IC 356 - the "other" hidden galaxy

[wimvb]

IC 365, also known as Arp 213, is a spiral galaxy in the vicinity of the better known "hidden" galaxy IC 342. It is located in the constellation Camelopardalis (the Camel). The galaxy appears red in colour, because, like IC 342, it is situated behind the dust of the Milky Way, at a distance of approximately 50 Mly, about five times further away than IC 342. IC 356 therefore appears smaller and dimmer than it's neighbour. The spiral arms and dust lanes in IC 356 are very faint, and took some experimenting during processing.

Scope: Sky-Watcher MN190 on AZ-EQ6 with OAG (ASI290 mini)

Camera: ZWO ASI294MM Pro with Optolong 31 mm LRGB filters

Data:

• RGB: 3 x 40 x 2.5 mins
• L: 115 x 1.5 mins
• Total integration time: just shy of 8 hours

Most of the data was collected during gaps in the clouds in late december, with the moon all to bright. I had to toss all the data of a second night because of moon light and thin high clouds. All processing was done in PixInsight.

This image was difficult to flatten, as my Green and Blue filters suffer from internal reflections. I have now turned the filters around, and test flats seem ok.

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by wimvb

[gorann]

That is a very nice image Wim - I like the colour of the galaxy and you caught a lot of detail. I assume that "LEDA 5061110" is a galaxy. Never herad of that catalog before.

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, gorann said:

That is a very nice image Wim - I like the colour of the galaxy and you caught a lot of detail. I assume that "LEDA 5061110" is a galaxy. Never herad of that catalog before.

Thanks, Göran. LEDA numbers are the same as PGC (principal galaxy catalog) numbers. It's just that the SIMBAD database uses LEDA and not PGC. If you get bored, you can read up on this:

https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2003/47/aa3772/aa3772.html