IC 342 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Giraffe in the northern starry sky. It is about 11 million light-years away from the solar system and has a diameter of about 60,000 light-years. The galaxy is located near the galactic equator, where dust veils make it difficult for astrophotographers to image the object.
You can see the dust clearly around and infront of the galaxy! IC 342 is one of the two brightest galaxies in the galaxy group closest to the Local Group, which includes our Milky Way. The galaxy was discovered in 1895 by William Frederick Denning. Edwin Hubble initially assumed it belonged to the Local Group, which later turned out to be wrong.
Jakob Sahner is a 21 year old German astrophotographer who came into contact with the fascination of space early in his childhood. Very early he began to make projects with image and video editing programs and after graduating from high school he completed an apprenticeship as a photo and media technical assistant. The subject has grabbed him like an addiction although he had no knowledge about this hobby. He just wanted to do it and try it out! In the now more than 4 years he has become a worldwide known astrophotographer and has developed his skills from normal landscape astrophotography to deepsky photography.