Needle Galaxy

Designation: NGC 4565 / C 38
Hemisphere: Northern
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Distance: 40 million light years
Object type: Barred Spiral galaxy

Description

NGC 4565 is a bright galaxy located some 40 million light-years away, in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is a clear example of an edge-on spiral galaxy, oriented perpendicularly to our line of sight, and it’s called the Needle Galaxy for its narrow appearance as seen from Earth.

The Needle Galaxy is roughly one third larger than our Milky Way though more luminous than the Andromeda Galaxy. It hosts around 240 globular clusters (more than our Galaxy) and has at least two satellite galaxies.

In this image I also captured a bunch of smaller galaxies, including the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4562, the spiral galaxy IC 3536 and the solitary elliptical galaxy NGC 4555. There are plenty other small galaxies, some of them not yet identified. Click on the image below to see them all.

Equipment

Mount: Sky-watcher HEQ5-Pro
Main Telescope: Askar 107PHQ
Main camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Main camera filters: Optolong L-Pro + Optolong UV/IR Cut
Guidescope: AstroEssential 50/200
Guide camera: ZWO ASI174MM
Guide camera filter: Astronomik UV/IR cut

Acquisition details

Total integration time: 10 hours
Acquisition: ZWO AsiAir Plus
Processing: PixInsight
Locations: Luxembourg