APOD: Hidden Galaxy IC 342 (2006 Oct 05)

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:26 am

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061005.html

This galaxy has gravitational influence on the Milky Way and local group. I wonder if it is part of the local group? I imagine the string of stars going across this galaxy is probably from our own Milky Way. They almost form a straight line,
Orin

astro_uk · Post by **astro_uk** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:23 am

I think the local group is only usually assumed to be galaxies within about 1-2Mpc, so IC 342 is probably just outside. All of the stars you can see in the image are stars in the MW, though some objects could be background galaxies/quasars or star clusters associated with IC 342.

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:42 pm

Hi Astro_uk! I did find one other distant galaxy at almost 3 o'clock after I enlarged the image. It puts into perspective how close this galaxy is though.

Orin

andyrint · Post by **andyrint** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:28 am

This is a great pic : http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061005.html
I wonder why it looks so 'washed out' when compared to the more usual pics of galaxies they put up such as http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060707.html
Is there more of our Milky Way to look through or is it just camera settings?

BMAONE23 · Post by **BMAONE23** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:52 pm

Andyrint,
It is most likely that the brightness is toned down due to the ammount of local stars in the image, this would lead to a washed out appearance for the background galaxy. It would be nice to see a scrubbed image with both background stars removed and approximate backfill reinserted to replace them.

Orin,
I see your "Galaxy" just below the large bright yellow star at the 2:30 position. Nice observation.

ckam · Post by **ckam** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:16 pm

BMAONE23 wrote:It would be nice to see a scrubbed image with both background stars removed and approximate backfill reinserted to replace them.

could not be bothered with backfill, but removing stars and saturating background is kind of easy. makes it look totally unrealistic, however:

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:17 pm

ckam wrote:
BMAONE23 wrote:It would be nice to see a scrubbed image with both background stars removed and approximate backfill reinserted to replace them.
could not be bothered with backfill, but removing stars and saturating background is kind of easy. makes it look totally unrealistic, however:

Your right ckam! The original does looks more realistic; even though the washed out look is there.
Orin

adisius · Post by **adisius** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:25 pm

Hi everyone! This is my first post and I was as curious as bmaone23 about seen the galaxy without the foreground stars, so I give it a shot and here is the result:

Hope you like it

PS: Sorry for my english, I'm from Chile, South America

BMAONE23 · Post by **BMAONE23** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:41 pm

Adisius,
Welcome to the boards. Your English is very good compared to some posters on this board. (Some of them seem to type in Ebonics.) I like the work you did with the image. You scrubbed it well enough to really see the galaxy without the chatter. Nice job

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 5:38 pm

Adisius! Nice job; brings out sharpness to the galaxy.
Orin

adisius · Post by **adisius** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 6:03 am

Thanks for your nice comments! I hope to improve my english too by posting here!

The galaxy pointed by you (btw, very nice observation), orin, reminds me of a project I was working on, detecting background objects seen through galaxys like this one, it was very exciting

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:59 am

I wonder if the background galaxy has a name?
Orin

astro_uk · Post by **astro_uk** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 12:03 pm

It may have a catalog number, in fact it may have many depending on what survey found it, but only the very closest galaxies have names, like andromeda or the spindle.

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:00 pm

I think we should name it.

Maybe Hiding in Hidden; since it is hiding in the Hidden Galaxy.

Just having fun.
Orin

BMAONE23 · Post by **BMAONE23** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:05 pm

How about "Jr Hidden, 57 times removed"