IC342 Hidden Galaxy

It was bitterly cold on the night of 2nd January 2025, but what a beautifully crystal clear starry night it was. So the year began with stargazing late into the night (or early morning).

To begin proceedings I spent over 4 hours capturing this image of IC 342, the Hidden Galaxy in the northern constellation of Camelopardilus.

 

It is a spiral galaxy the far side of the equator of the Milky Way’s pearly disk, which is crowded with thick cosmic gas, dark dust, and glowing stars that all obscure our view, earning it the nickname of the Hidden Galaxy. It is roughly 11 million light years away and about 50,000 light-years across (half the size of our own Milk Way galaxy).

 

~

 

Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

 

Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C

Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam

Guide via: ZWO OAG

 

Stacked from:

Lights 126 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Darks 30 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Dark Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101 temp -10C

 

Bortle 4 sky.

Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.

Processed in Pixinsight

Captions added in Photoshop CS4

 

 

Done