IC 342 – The “Hidden” Galaxy
Description:
IC 342, the Hidden Galaxy is so called because despite being relatively close to us, it is obscured by clouds of gas and dust from our own galaxy because it is in the same plane. Otherwise, it would be much brighter. According to measurements taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, a supermassive black hole equivalent to a mass between 1.4 and 5.4 million Suns is located at the center of this galaxy.
Technical details:
Telescope: Celestron Edge HD14 and 0.7x focal reducer
Camera: ZWO ASI 6200 in bin 2×2 mode
Filters LRGB Chroma 2″
Exposure: a total of 96 6-minute subs
Place: Backyard observatory in Sainte-Sophie, Qc
The image was enhanced by a photo taken with an H-Alpha filter to reveal the pink areas which are regions of ionized hydrogen. This photo comes from my colleague Martin Dufour. A first collaboration attempt on the same photo.
