The Hidden Galaxy (IC 342) (KuriousGeorge)

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

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The Hidden Galaxy (IC 342)

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The Hidden Galaxy (IC 342)

IC 342 is a challenging target. Although it's bright, the galaxy sits near the equator of the Milky Way's galactic disk, where the sky is thick with glowing cosmic gas, bright stars, and dark, obscuring dust.

In order to see the intricate spiral structure of IC 342, you must gaze through a large amount of material contained within our own galaxy—no easy feat! As a result IC 342 is relatively difficult to spot and image, giving rise to its intriguing nickname: the "Hidden Galaxy."

Located very close to the Milky Way at 10.7 million light years distant from Earth, this sweeping spiral galaxy would be among the brightest in the sky were it not for its dust-obscured location. The galaxy is very active, as indicated by the range of colors.

A beautiful mixture of hot, blue star-forming regions, redder, cooler regions of gas, and dark lanes of opaque dust can be seen, all swirling together around a bright core. In 2003, astronomers confirmed this core to be a specific type of central region known as an HII nucleus—a name that indicates the presence of ionized hydrogen—that is likely to be creating many hot new stars.

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
Artificial satellite

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	...
PixInsight job	4GPP834NMEJHJUSBCUWG17TTKOR96VXC
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	03h46m51s.78
RA (top/left)	03h44m08s.71
RA (top/right)	03h49m33s.21
RA (bottom/right)	03h49m38s.96
RA (bottom/left)	03h44m06s.86

Dec (center)	+68°05′47″.7
Dec (top/left)	+67°50′10″.10
Dec (top/right)	+67°50′00″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	+68°21′15″.4
Dec (bottom/left)	+68°21′25″.8

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The Hidden Galaxy (IC 342)

The Hidden Galaxy (IC 342)

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AstroBin

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

The Hidden Galaxy (IC 342)

The Hidden Galaxy (IC 342)

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

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