10.7 ± 0.9 MLy

After a long gap in opportunities to image (this is the first since late August), I finally had a coincidence of clear weather with having time to get my gear out. The session got off to a slow start because the focuser was badly misbehaving. First, after a lot of messing around I found a broken wire leading to the stepper motor. Fixed that, but then a new problem emerged. Unless the tension is set just right, the focuser won’t move both directions, and the tension was not just right. Eventually I gave up on autofocus and just set the focus manually. I think this galaxy is a bit under appreciated as a beautiful target; it has certainly been under appreciated by me because the last time I tried it was 5 years ago. It’s a nice size for my optics. The galaxy’s core is much brighter than the arms, which have quite low surface brightness. Their relative dimness is obscured after all the stretching I did in processing. I think this image is far better than my 2014 effort.

Date: 4-6 Nov 2019

Subject: IC 342, sometimes called “The Hidden Galaxy” because it is obscured by Milky Way dust

Scope: AT8IN+High Point Scientific Coma Corrector

Filters: ZWO 31 mm diameter unmounted 7 nm Hα, OIII

Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD 2.000j)+PEC

Guiding: Orion Thin Off-axis Guider + ASI120MM-mini +PHD 2.6.6 (Win 10 ASCOM)

Camera: ASI1600MM-Cool, -20 °C, Gain 139 Offset 21

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 3.1.0.341

Exposure: 160x180 L, 40x180 R, 40x180 G, 40x180 B

Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker 4.2.2 (64-bit) dark+flat+bias, κ-σ stacking with κ = 1.5.

Processing: StarTools 1.6.380: Combined R, G, & B. Software binned 2x2, cropped, wiped, developed, HDR “hard” optimized, used the color module, and untrack denoised. Separately processed L in StarTools: binned 2x2, cropped, developed, HDR “hard” optimized, deconvoluted and untracked denoised. Combined L with RGB in Photoshop. Small adjustments with levels, deep space noise reduction, and space noise reduction. AstroFrame.