January 2025 - Picture of the Month
Spiral Galaxy IC 342 in Camelopardalis
I thought that it was about time I featured a galaxy, and as luck would have it Capella Observatory have just captured this image of the spectacular IC 342.
I'm not going to say much about this galaxy because Owen Brazell's already featured it as his Galaxy of the Month way back in September 2012, so you should check out that article.
As Owen mentions, this galaxy is highly obscured by the gas and dust in our own Milky Way, and in his article he linked to an infrared image of IC 342 taken by WISE pondering how spectacular it might look if where not obscured. In 2012 we didn't have ESA's Euclid near-infrared telescope which captured its own image of IC 342 back in 2023. A great improvement on WISE showing many fainter and bluer star that are the key to studying star formation.
However this amateur image shows a great deal of structural detail. For example many of the larger star clusters in IC 342 that Euclid observed can clearly be seen here too, especially on Capella's larger version. What I find noticeable in examining the two images is perhaps unsurprising: Euclid shows the spiral arm structure more clearly, but the Capella image makes those dust lanes visible. That's the value of examining objects in multiple wavelengths of light I suppose.
No doubt that IC 342 is more of an imaging target, perhaps try for those globular clusters, but it is accessible to the visual observer that likes a challenge.
James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.
