IC 342: "The Hidden Galaxy" (drblevy13)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Camelopardalis (Cam) · Contains: IC 342

Powered byPixInsight

IC 342: "The Hidden Galaxy"

Powered byPixInsight

IC 342: "The Hidden Galaxy"

I had the itch to try my hand again with the Askar 107PHQ paired with a one shot color camera, but this time be more patient and take more exposures for a longer overall integration time. The ease of this refractor cannot be understated. Really a joy to use.

Another part of this task was trying to fine-tune my AVX mount. I had installed an aftermarket saddle, and in doing so found that if I ever-so-slightly loosened the retention ring at the base of the declination axis, movement was substantially more fluid. This translated to an average tracking of 0.5" to 0.6" RMS! Major gain from a minimal adjustment.

Here we have uncovered the "Hidden Galaxy" which is named as such because it is harder to observe due to its position at the dusty galactic equator. That description was really appealing to me: I wanted to try to get a nice color shot of the galaxy while preserving the surrounding dust. That proved more of a challenge than I thought: this object is true to its namesake!

Original
B
Final
C

B

Description: Reprocessed using new SPCC tool in PixInsight. I wanted to go for a more natural look for this revision.

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Yet another attempt to get better color balance and deconvolution.

Uploaded: ...

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	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

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	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

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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	7482901
PixInsight job	E7Y1LC6HMIM7N92ZST4PJL2Y2W5PO54S
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	03h46m49s.26
RA (top/left)	03h43m22s.75
RA (top/right)	03h43m36s.38
RA (bottom/right)	03h50m06s.31
RA (bottom/left)	03h50m11s.99

Dec (center)	+68°05′51″.2
Dec (top/left)	+68°38′42″.3
Dec (top/right)	+67°32′31″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	+67°32′43″.4
Dec (bottom/left)	+68°38′56″.1

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

IC 342: "The Hidden Galaxy"

IC 342: "The Hidden Galaxy"

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

C

Sky plot

Histogram

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

IC 342: "The Hidden Galaxy"

IC 342: "The Hidden Galaxy"

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

C

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

Delete this revision?

Delete this revision?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information