Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader Mod39x180sec at iso 1600
30 Darks/Flats/Bias
Celestron 9.25 reduced 0.6330% CropIt was very difficult to obtain a reasonable signal/noise ratio with this object as it lies directly in the only light dome I have in my sky. I wanted to try it anyway, and it's not my best, but I'm glad to have it in the collection.Edwin P. Hubble suspected IC 342 as a member of the Local Group, but later observations showed that it is at a distance of about 14 million light-years. It forms a group with some large and many dwarf galaxies, the so-called Maffei 1 group, or IC 342 group, which is the closest group outside our local group.It lies only 10 degrees of so off the galactic equator and therefore is obscured by a factor of 2.5 magnitudes by interstellar debris. If it were not for this decrease in magnitude, it would be one of the brightest galaxies in the sky. It is the largest galaxy in the northern sky after M31 and M33. Faint galaxy UGC02826 can be seen glowing at mag 15 in the upper right corner.
November 4, 2008
