IC342, The Hidden Galaxy [Robotic, GMO_Legacy]
Image by john.purvis
Also catalogued as Caldwell 5 in Patrick (Caldwell) Moore’s catalogue of Deep Sky Objects.
Spiral Galaxy IC342 is relatively close to us at about 10.7 million LY and subtends across 21.4 x 20.9 arcminutes of sky which makes it about 2/3 of the size of the full Moon yet it is quite faint and not well known to visual observers.
This is because it lies, from our viewpoint, behind a veil of Milky Way stars and dust clouds which obscure its brightness.
Bright red/pink Hydrogen alpha zones and dark dust lanes can be made out but the general "blueness" of its spiral arms which are rich in young OB class stars is subdued by the intervening dust. Overall, the galaxy is, well…, sort of too red! And our eyes aren’t sensitive to red.
If it wasn’t for the dust, this galaxy would be naked eye visible! I had to resist the temptation to bump up brightness and blueness during processing – its meant to be obscure and reddish!
Legacy Data from Grand Mesa Observatory, Colorado.
IC342 is in the constellation Camelopardalis
Espirit 150mm refractor. RGB subs
Image scale 0.731 arcsec/pixel.
Centred on:
RA: 3d 46m 48.31s
DEC: +68d 06m 08.9s
Processed in PixInsight. PI StarNet module used to make nebulosity masks.
