IC 342 knots!

[akarsh]

Dear DSF,

I was under the impression that IC 342 is this extremely faint galaxy where all you can detect is the faint glow; and despite its being a beautiful grand spiral, the obscuring effect of the milky way renders it a low surface brightness meaningless smudge.

But I was proven wrong today when averted vision told me that there was something fuzzy outside the core that looked like a knot in the arm. Thereafter, my friend Hemant and I pulled up a DSS image and observed several knots in his 5" Takahashi refractor and my 18" f/4.5 Obsession dob. The best views for me were on the dob using a 20mm Pentax XW, although my friend liked the feel in his telescope (which has excellent contrast) better.

I'm sharing my observations (from Okie-Tex star party) made a few hours ago here, and I request those who have managed to see some spiral structure in IC342 to share their observations as well (Observations of knots in NGC 6946 are also invited!).

Here is an annotated DSS image, which the text will refer to:
IC342.jpg

26mm UO HD Ortho (~80x): knot #1 detected first, then checked against DSS. Couldn't resolve into two nebulae. Knot #2 seen after looking at the DSS image.

20mm Pentax XW (~100x): Arm #1 is visible as an arm, and resolves into knots. If my memory is right, all 4 knots are resolved. Knot #2 is much more clear, and connects up with knot #3 to give a sensation of arm #3.

In some particular eyepiece (I think it was 10mm Delos: ~200x), knot #3 was nicely seen.

16mm UO Super Abbe ortho (~128x): Arm #2 felt, but hard to confirm due to the presence of bright stars.

Clear Skies!
Regards
Akarsh

[Ivan Maly]

The stars are a big problem with this one, not only do they cluster in front of the galaxy they seem to line up with the most promising features. I haven't seen anything definite besides the core. Thanks for the pointers. Great observations. I'll take a printout of your chart when I go after it again.

[akarsh]

Hi Ivan

This guy IC 342 is a tough nut, isn't he? Just like the rest of the Maffei group. I wonder what Jimi has seen of it with his 48".

Certainly, the stars are a problem. In fact, that's why I'm doubtful of seeing what I called "arm #2". One of the knots, I think knot #2, is flanked by a double star. The only way that we knew it was more than that was because the patch was larger than the double star. Thanks for your comments! Please do let me know what you see!

Regards
Akarsh

[Howard B]

I've had several nice observations of IC 342 that have shown the patchy spiral arms in both my 20 and 28 inch scopes - here's one from two years ago:

"IC 342 got larger the more I looked at it which is why my sketch doesn't fit in its space on the previous page. Low surface brightness spiral arms wrap around the small core, which has a star like core. A ghostly galaxy for sure (only the core was seen at first at 131x & 155x, but the spiral arms started to be detected at 155x with AV. They were seen better at 253x and had more contrast right away.) 21.69 SQM"

IC342crop.jpg IC342cropinvert.jpg

As you guys noted, there are a lot of foreground stars that can make sighting the spiral arms somewhat more difficult, so upping the magnification a little might be worth a try.