Monday, Jun 23, 2025

I am sharing this image of the hidden galaxy whose data belong to a session of November 1, 2024 from the San Fermo pass above Vobbia in the province of Genoa Italy It was an evening of testing the recent improvements that I made to the primary cell to improve its stability during transport and I would say the result was positive; since then the tube has remained the same having reached its final tuning. In this image I tried to bring to light also the dust of the Milky Way behind which the hidden galaxy is hidden, these are the cause of this particular coloration Similar in size to the large, bright spiral galaxies in our neighborhood, IC 342 is located about 10 million light-years away in the constellation of Camelopardalis. It could be a well-observed galaxy in our night sky, but it can only be glimpsed through the veils of clouds of gas, dust and stars along the plane of the Milky Way: it is located close to the galactic disk, where obscuration by dust makes it difficult to observe. Although the light of IC 342 is attenuated by intervening cosmic clouds, this beautiful image highlights the opaque dust, the blue star clusters and the bright pink regions of star formation, along the spiral arms that unfurl from the galactic nucleus. IC 342 may have undergone a recent episode of intense star formation and is close enough to have gravitationally influenced the evolution of the Local Group of galaxies and the Milky Way. ( Barbara Bubbi) It was an excellent evening with a SQM of 21.3 53 lights of 600" in broadband 8h50' uv/ir cut Skywatcher 300/1200 F4 Off-axis guider Oag L + Asi 120MM mini Camera Zwo Asi 2600Mc pro Mount Skywatcher Cq350 Pro Acquisition with Zwo Asi Air Plus Processing Pixinsight