The Hidden Galaxy (IC 342) is a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis (which might have the most syllables of any constellation name. The mouthful means “camel leopard” in Latin because it had the long neck of a camel and the spots of a leopard or what we would call a giraffe.

The galaxy is relatively close at between 7 to 11 million light years away. Distance measurements are complicated because we are seeing this galaxy through dust in our own galaxy which is what causes the entire galaxy to look reddish (the same effect that makes sunsets look red – dust scatters the blue light).

The dust in between is why it gets called the Hidden Galaxy though in reality, it’s not that hidden. Maybe it should be the Reddened Galaxy instead.

This is 52h 5m of HaLRGB data. For all the technical details, see astrobin.