Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) — a NASA project that daily publishes astronomical images with explanations from professional astronomers — presented in its November 4, 2026 edition an image of galaxy IC 342. This spiral galaxy earned the nickname "Hidden Galaxy" because of its location nearly exactly in the plane of the Milky Way's disk. Because of this, light from IC 342 passes through dense clouds of gas, dust, and countless stars of our own galaxy, which significantly hampers its observation from Earth. Nevertheless, as emphasized in the APOD article, modern telescopes and image processing methods allow for a sufficiently detailed view of IC 342's structure, so the publication's author calls it "not so hidden" after all. The image reveals characteristic features of spiral galaxies: a bright nucleus, twisted arms with star-forming regions, and the diffuse glow of interstellar gas. IC 342 is located in the constellation Giraffe at a distance of approximately 11 million light-years from Earth and is considered one of the nearest large galaxies to us, comparable in scale to the galaxies of the Local Group. Due to obscuration by Milky Way dust, its true brightness and actual distance have long been subjects of refinement among astronomers. The APOD project, which has existed since 1995, acquaints readers daily with one astronomical image — whether it be a photograph from a space telescope, a picture of the Earth's sky, or the work of amateur observatories — accompanying it with a scientific commentary accessible to a wide audience.