Photo of the Week for October 9, 2015
One of the least distinctive constellations in the northern sky is Camelopardalis, the Giraffe. Even veteran stargazers can struggle to trace its outline. Indeed, Camelopardalis has been described as the absence of a constellation. Yet within its confines are a number of galaxies, including the one pictured here, IC 342. This lovely spiral lies roughly 10 million light-years away — about four times farther than the Andromeda galaxy.
Daniel Borcard devoted three nights at his observatory in Saint-Roch-de-l’Achigan, Quebec, to accumulate the nearly 18 hours of exposure needed for this portrait of IC 342. He used a SBIG ST-2000XM camera attached to his 140mm f/7 TEC apochromatic refractor telescope, and recorded data through red, green and blue filters.
