Has anyone here seen anything of the spiral arms in IC 342? What does it take aperture-, magnification-, and conditions-wise, and what exactly can be seen? I have so far been unsuccessful with my 12" SCT, trying from 55 to 375x. The field is rich and in fact there is a condensation of Milky Way stars, which looks like the galaxy in binoculars. With the telescope, however, only the core is seen, not a trace of even the (photographically) brightest fragments of the spiral arms.