NGC 4565, the Needle Galaxy, is one of the most prominent and famous edge-on spiral galaxies in the sky.
You can easily see the bulging central hub and the large dust lane that cuts across the nucleus of the galaxy. The dust blocks and reddens the light coming from the interior. The galaxy is located about 30-50 million light years away from us.
Galaxies are quite numerous in this part of the sky. In addition to the Needle Galaxy you can easily see NGC 4562 (another spiral galaxy) to its lower right, NGC 4555 near the top edge of the image, and NGC 4494 in the lower right corner of the image. The latter two are elliptical galaxies. Other even fainter galaxies are just barely discernable in this image.
Wide angle view of NGC 4565 and some of its neighboring galaxies
Zooming in on NGC 4565 and NGC 4562}
Since the images in this blog are relatively large and contain a lot of detail, if you are using a phone or a small tablet, you might want to consider returning sometime when you can use a computer with its larger screen.
Since the images in this blog are relatively large and contain a lot of detail, if you are using a phone or a small tablet, you might want to consider returning sometime when you can use a computer with its larger screen.