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IC 342 (Caldwell 5) - a galaxy in Camelopardalis
IC 342 was discovered in 1895 by Denning. Edwin Hubble suspected it as a member of the Local Group but more recent observations have shown that it is at a distance of 14 million light-years. IC 342 lies at low galactic latitude, only 10.5 degrees from the Galactic Equator and so its light is dimmed by the intervening gas and dust of our own Milky Way. Recent estimates give an extinction of about 2.4 magnitudes and without this the galaxy would be among the brightest in the sky.
This 20 x 20 arc minute image was created by combining the R and the B images from the Digitized Sky Survey with the G image formed by taking the mean of the R and B images.
In collaboration with the Remote Astronomical Society Observatory
Martin Nicholson - Daventry, United Kingdom.
This page was last updated on December 6th 2007.