Maffei 2 – more for friends of the obscure(d)

Observation Notes

I have to admit I am quite intrigued by the Maffei Group. At a distance of only 10 Mpc, it is the galaxy group closest to the Local group. Yet, many of its members were only discovered some 50 years ago in infrared exposure. The best known member, IC342 - the hidden galaxy - would be visible by the naked eye, but substantial extinction by the Milky Way (the so-called zone of avoidance) make it to a rather faint object. Maffei 1, the closest giant elliptical would also be among the 10 brightest galaxies on the sky, but it is absorbed by almost 5mag of dust, and here my attempt on Maffei 2 - a pretty sizeable disk galaxy, but hidden behind the Galactic dust curtain - so only very few images can be found on astrobin. I had to stretch it rather aggressively to get the faint structure show up prominently.

Data were taken on 2026 January 19, 20, 21, and 22

Technical Details

View the full-resolution image together with complete acquisition and processing details on AstroBin.