Maffei I is a recent discovery, being highly obscured and reddened by interstellar dust in the Milky Way in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Almost impossible to see visually, this unusual object would be as bright as the Andromeda Galaxy if it were not for the intervening dust. Since there were very few color shots of this object, I decided to photograph it and record its tawny hues. Although rated at 11.4 magnitude, I was not able to see it in the scope prior to shooting it. The core is 2 arcminutes long, and the classification is SO Peculiar probably from the dust patch you can see on its right side.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG ST7E w/Enhanced Cooling
Exposure:  LRGB = 60:20:20:20 (RGB Binned 2x2)
RGB Combine Ratio:  1: .95: 1.8
Filters:  RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FMHW = 2.5 arcsec, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  5 C
CCD Temperature:  -25 C
Processing:  Maxim DL, Photoshop, AIP4WIN, PW Pro.

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