The Mighty C5 Hidden Galaxy
There are a few deep sky bucket list items that I can’t wait to capture. One of them is a the Hidden Galaxy, also know as Caldwell 5 or IC 342. Why is it called the Hidden Galaxy? It is in a bad position in the cosmos. It is super close to the galactic equator of the Milky Way. This means in order for us to view it, you have to peer through dense clouds of dust, gas, and stars in our own galaxy’s disk. Better yet, to take an image of it requires you to have high gain, and very long exposures. I have seen successful images at 90s/80G/1800 count. That is 45 hours of data. Those numbers were in an unknown bortle site .
Tonight I am starting the endeavor. Shooting 60s/60G/600 count. for the first night. That is 10 hours of images stacked. Depending on what I see I will either have to give up and wait until I get to a darker area. Speaking of that, it does not help that I am taking shots in a brightly moon lit sky. If the results show what is starting to look like a galaxy, I will just continue taking shots for the next few nights and post the results.
Some stats on C5
Distance: Approximately 10-11 million light-years from Earth
Type: SAB(rs)cd – intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bar
Diameter: About 50,000 light-years across
Magnitude: 9.1 (relatively bright for a galaxy)
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