This object, the fifth entry in the
Caldwell Catalog, is a spiral galaxy located 11 million light years away in the constellation of Camelopardis at a declination of +68 degrees. This magnitude 8 galaxy (with a surface brightness of 15) spans 19 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 65,000 light years. It is 20 degrees from face-on to our view and has a slightly barred structure.
The location of this object close to our galactic equator obscures it with Milky Way dust and stars. Its low surface brightness leads to its two nicknames of The Hidden Galaxy and The Star Veiled Galaxy.
The closeness of this galaxy allows us to see details such as meandering dust lanes, HII regions, and star clusters. The arm structure is fascinating – each arm is hard to trace but appears to extend for more than 360 degrees of rotation, which is unusually large. The arms show some
Vorontsov-Velyaminov structure.
The bright and colorful Milky Way star field is one of the brightest and dense that I can recall in the foreground of a galaxy image.
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