At merely 13 million light years away, IC 342 is the dominant member of a nearby group of galaxies known as LGG (Lyon Galaxy Group) 104, or simply the IC 342 Group. From our perspective, we see this nearly face-on spiral in the constellation of Camelopardalis positioned just 11 degrees from the central plane of the Milky Way. Therefore, we are actually observing this distant object through a myriad of relatively nearby stars and alot of interstellar dust belonging to our very own galaxy. So much dust, for instance, that the light from IC 342 is actually extinguished by nearly three full magnitudes by the time it reaches us. Such dust has the effect of reddening the starlight from a background object, resulting in the wonderful bluish disc of IC 342 taking on much less vibrant hues of pale yellow or even a dull green in certain areas. The core, however, maintains its distinctive yellowish-orange glow even through the dust. The brilliant nucleus of IC 342 is of particular interest to professional astronomers, because it is known to harbor a very young super-massive cluster of luminous stars that seem to have been created just 60 million years ago. This places IC 342 in a rather bizarre subclass of object known as a star-burst galaxy, and also makes it the nearest gas-rich spiral galaxy with an active nucleus. The exact reasoning behind the recent burst of star-formation some 60 million years ago is still up for much debate, however, it is thought that the relative motion of the weak bar-like feature near the center of the galaxy is forcing gigantic clouds of molecular gas to collide with one another. Such collisions seem to be creating large-scale shock waves, which are somehow force feeding hydrogen-rich gases into the belly of the giant spiral! Despite having a rather simple spiral pattern near center, the outermost arms of IC 342 are found to be quite fragmented or flocculent in nature and appear to contain numerous HII regions. Image taken with homemade 8-inch f/5.4 astrograph and SBIG STL-11000M. LRGB image composed of 60 minutes each R,G,B and 260 minutes L. Please click on the above image for the high resolution version.