Based on archival Hubble Space Telescope images , we have performed stellar photometry for a region of the spiral galaxy IC 342 located in the Milky Way zone .
On the constructed Hertzsprung-Russell diagram , we have identified the red giant branch and determined the distance modulus for the galaxy by the TRGB ( tip of the red giant branch ) method , ( m - M ) = 27.97 \pm 0.10 , which corresponds to D = 3.93 \pm 0.10 Mpc .
The estimated distance puts IC 342 spatially close to the galaxy Maffei 1 ( D = 4.1 Mpc ) and allows these galaxies to be considered the center of a single group .