Galaxy IC 342: "The Phantom Galaxy"

Galaxy IC 342 is often referred to as "the Phantom Galaxy" due to its fairly large, but rather dim appearance. It appears rather large from earth, measuring approximately 20 arc-minutes in diameter (2/3 the diameter of the full-moon!), but is rather dim because it sits near the plane of the Milky Way and is obscured by intervening dust; if not for the dust extinction it would probably be one of the brightest galaxies in the sky. It sits essentially face-on to our viewpoint and is a classic spiral galaxy. Because of its location near the disc of our galaxy, it sits in a fairly dense starfield; note how many stars surround the galaxy in the image below--these are all members of the Milky Way and not IC 342. Photographically, this is a rather challenging subject due to its faintness, particularly from light-polluted suburban skies.