IC 342

Type:

Intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is located behind dusty areas near the galactic equator, hence difficult to observe, leading to the nickname "The Hidden Galaxy". IC 342 is a galaxy with high star formation activity (starburst galaxy). Distance ~ 11 MLy / Visual Brightness: 8.4 mag.

In galaxies, regions of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) together with regions of ionized hydrogen gas (visible by its H(alpha) emission) heated by young and hot O or B stars are an indicator of star formation activity.

The picture above shows a matched overlay of my own picture with a false-color composite of IC 342 showing molecular gas CO(1–0) (green) acquired by NOEMA, atomic gas traced by the 21 cm line using the VLA (blue), and H(alpha) emission from ionized gas (red). The dashed rectangle delimits the field of view observed with NOEMA and solid ellipses show galactocentric radii at 5, 10, 15, and 20 kpc. The false color map was taken from: M. Querejeta et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics 680, A4 (2023).

The high star fromation activity in IC 342 is revealed by the distribution of molecular, atomic, and ionized gas.

NOEMA = NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (Plateau de Bure in the French Alps)
Northern Extended Millimeter Array - Wikipedia

VLA = Very Large Array (USA, New Mexico on the Plains of San Agustin)

Very Large Array - Wikipedia

Date: August 30+31-th, 2024 / Moon: 15%(-)

Equipment:

Stellina 80/400, 1180x10s (3h 17min), darks, stacked: APP, postproc.: TOPAZ denoise, Affinity Photo, FITSwork