Snippets from Burnham’s Celestial Handbook…

IC 342 in Camelopardalis

Descriptive Notes…

A large round spiral galaxy of type Sc; difficult for small telescopes but of great interest, since it may be a member of the Local Group of galaxies which includes our own Milky Way System. It was discovered by W.F. Denning about 1890 and reported to J.L. Dreyer who included it in the first “Index Catalogue” (a supplement to the NGC) in 1895. E. Hubble and M. Humason (1934) detected the spiral pattern and called attention to the large apparent size, revealed by densitometer measurements to be about 40’ E-W and 33’ N-S. In apparent size, IC 342 is thus one of the largest spirals in the sky, and is probably among the half dozen nearest galaxies. M31 and M33 are the only spirals likely to be closer to the Milky Way System.

IC 342 may be observed in an 8-inch glass under good conditions, and appears as a small fuzzy 12th magnitude nucleus surrounded by a very large and faint hazy glow. On photographs this outer glow reveals itself as a beautiful pattern of spiral arms curving about a nucleus. Oriented almost face-on, the object is as perfect in form as the great M101 in Ursa Major, and evidently much nearer to our own galaxy. An interesting fact about IC 342 is its location only 10° above the galactic plane, well within the star clouds of the Milky Way. This undoubtedly results in a heavy degree of obscuration, and the distance is therefore indeterminate…

When I first started out in Astronomy as a visual observer. Burnham’s Celestial Handbook and The Night Sky Observers Guide were some of the first sets of books I obtained. They contain a treasure trove of information and targets to observe visually, or to image. Burnham’s has many images that are black and white, obtained with famous telescopes like the 200-inch reflector at Palomar Observatory. What was back then expensive scientific equipment. It really is amazing to contrast those images with the ones taken with modest amateur equipment of today! It’s hard to imagine what later generations of astrophotographers will have to work with.