Uwe Glahn
November 20th, 2016, 08:08 PM
IC 342 “The Hidden Galaxy”
(UGC 2847, Caldwell 5)
Camelopardalis
RA: 03h 46′ 48″
DEC: +68° 05′ 44″
Vmag: 8.4
SB: 14.9
Size: ~21′
This time we visit a famous but rare observed, a luminous but visually dim and a photographic spectacular but visually tricky object – the “Hidden Galaxy IC 342”.
The discovery last until Barnard pointed the 12-inch Refractor of the Lick Observatory to the position of IC 342 in 1890. Interestingly Denning pointed his own alt-azimuth mounted telescope – a 10-inch Reflector (already equipped with a silvered glass mirror) to the same position nearly 2 years later and made a curious double discovery. Curious because of the too late date for both – the deadline of the NGC was in 1887. Dreyer collected all later discoveries and finished a first list of the ″Index Catalogue of Nebula found in the Years 1888 to 1894, with Notes and Corrections to the New General Catalogue″, today often called ″IC 1″ in 1895 with the entry of our OOTW, IC 342.
But why dim, visually tricky and rare observed although the very large size and total brightness? The solution is caused by the for a galaxy stupid sky position. IC 342 lies very near to the galactic plane so that dust, gas and stars dim the light of the galaxy. For example the famous Milky Way positioned ″Heard Nebula IC 1805″ is only 10° away.
Today we know that IC 342 is member of the Maffei-Group. For ″fuzzy-ball observers″ names like Maffei I/II, Dwingeloo I/II or Cam A/B could be another target and an object-related observing program – of course with IC 342 only as a star-hop starting object :D. The Maffei-Group counts to the nearest group of galaxies beyond our Local Group. The somewhat difficult to define distance of IC 342 is around 10 Mlj.
Similar but much more difficult to the large, total bright but surface faint M 101, IC 342 could be detected even with large size binoculars or a 4-inch telescope when the sky a transparent enough. The difficulty is the detection of the faint spiral arms. My experience is that the spiral structure is barely visible in mid size telescopes without showing any direct detail or arms. I could only detect individual arms with my 27-inch and a very patient observation. Interestingly some brighter portions on photographs were nor visible while some fainter regions were visible better than expected.
But what are your experiences? Could the arms be detected even in small or mid size apertures and what are the brightest and easiest regions?
photograph: Martin Germano, 8"
2351
sketch: 27", 172x, NELM 7m0+
2352
So Give it a Go and let us Know!
(UGC 2847, Caldwell 5)
Camelopardalis
RA: 03h 46′ 48″
DEC: +68° 05′ 44″
Vmag: 8.4
SB: 14.9
Size: ~21′
This time we visit a famous but rare observed, a luminous but visually dim and a photographic spectacular but visually tricky object – the “Hidden Galaxy IC 342”.
The discovery last until Barnard pointed the 12-inch Refractor of the Lick Observatory to the position of IC 342 in 1890. Interestingly Denning pointed his own alt-azimuth mounted telescope – a 10-inch Reflector (already equipped with a silvered glass mirror) to the same position nearly 2 years later and made a curious double discovery. Curious because of the too late date for both – the deadline of the NGC was in 1887. Dreyer collected all later discoveries and finished a first list of the ″Index Catalogue of Nebula found in the Years 1888 to 1894, with Notes and Corrections to the New General Catalogue″, today often called ″IC 1″ in 1895 with the entry of our OOTW, IC 342.
But why dim, visually tricky and rare observed although the very large size and total brightness? The solution is caused by the for a galaxy stupid sky position. IC 342 lies very near to the galactic plane so that dust, gas and stars dim the light of the galaxy. For example the famous Milky Way positioned ″Heard Nebula IC 1805″ is only 10° away.
Today we know that IC 342 is member of the Maffei-Group. For ″fuzzy-ball observers″ names like Maffei I/II, Dwingeloo I/II or Cam A/B could be another target and an object-related observing program – of course with IC 342 only as a star-hop starting object :D. The Maffei-Group counts to the nearest group of galaxies beyond our Local Group. The somewhat difficult to define distance of IC 342 is around 10 Mlj.
Similar but much more difficult to the large, total bright but surface faint M 101, IC 342 could be detected even with large size binoculars or a 4-inch telescope when the sky a transparent enough. The difficulty is the detection of the faint spiral arms. My experience is that the spiral structure is barely visible in mid size telescopes without showing any direct detail or arms. I could only detect individual arms with my 27-inch and a very patient observation. Interestingly some brighter portions on photographs were nor visible while some fainter regions were visible better than expected.
But what are your experiences? Could the arms be detected even in small or mid size apertures and what are the brightest and easiest regions?
photograph: Martin Germano, 8"
2351
sketch: 27", 172x, NELM 7m0+
2352
So Give it a Go and let us Know!