Hidden Galaxy - IC 342 (Massimo Di Fusco)

Hidden Galaxy - IC 342

Since I like to experiment, I wanted to try to shoot a galaxy from my city sky (Bortle 6/7) without anti-light pollution filters but using only a simple UV/IR-cut filter (apart from the narrow band to collect the signal of the H-alpha zones) to preserve the colors as much as possible. I had to work a lot in post-production to eliminate the gradients (it is the routine for me, having a lot of public and private lights around) but in the end I was very satisfied with the result. I hope you like it too.

IC 342 (also known as Caldwell 5) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis, located relatively close to the Milky Way. Despite its size and actual brightness, its location behind dusty areas near the galactic equator makes it difficult to observe, leading to the nickname "The Hidden Galaxy". If the galaxy were not obscured, it would be visible by naked eye. The dust makes it difficult to determine its precise distance; modern estimates range from about 7 to about 11 millions light-years. It has an HII nucleus and a diameter of 75000 light-years.
The galaxy was discovered by William Frederick Denning in 1892. It is one of the brightest in the IC 342/Maffei Group, one of the closest galaxy groups to the Local Group. Edwin Hubble first thought it to be in the Local Group, but it was later determined not to be a member.
In 1935, Harlow Shapley found that it was wider than the full moon, and by angular size the third-largest spiral galaxy then known, smaller only than the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) but modern estimates are more conservative, giving the apparent size as one-half to two-thirds the diameter of the full moon.

Original
Final
B

Optolong L-Ultimate filter
Beginners AP
/r/astrophotography
Cloudy Nights
Broadband under Bortle 7/8/9
QHY Users Group
Image the Universe
AAA : Astronomes et Astrographes Amateurs
N.I.N.A. Users
FriendlyCosmos
Reflecting Telescope Group
Imagers of Italy
Suburban Astrophotography
PixInsight Addicts
Cooled Color Cams
AstroBin Platform open discussions community forum

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6561847
PixInsight job	D3Y0GJQA4DL19SO8YCX872RBCH1Y25S2
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	03h46m48s.47
RA (top/left)	03h43m03s.21
RA (top/right)	03h50m37s.97
RA (bottom/right)	03h50m40s.86
RA (bottom/left)	03h42m51s.45

Dec (center)	+68°05′48″.0
Dec (top/left)	+67°43′54″.9
Dec (top/right)	+67°44′19″.4
Dec (bottom/right)	+68°27′22″.5
Dec (bottom/left)	+68°26′58″.8

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):