This is NGC 4565, better known as the Needle Galaxy.
NGC 4565 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Coma Berenices, approximately 40 million light-years away from Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy, it is a beautiful sight for astronomers and amateur stargazers alike.
The galaxy is awe-inspiring, with its disk of stars and dust stretching over 100,000 light-years across. It has a bright, elongated central bulge surrounded by a prominent and symmetrical disk. It is believed that the entire galaxy is surrounded by a faint halo of stars.
NGC 4565 is a remarkable sight in the night sky for its narrow silhouette, making it one of the most famous examples of an edge-on spiral galaxy. Its disk structure can be seen edge-on as a dark streak, while the dust and gas lanes look like a thin line running through it.
Interestingly, the galaxy is relatively isolated, located at a distance from other galaxies. This characteristic makes it a perfect laboratory to study galaxy formation and evolution, as it has not been significantly influenced by the interactions with other galaxies.
The galaxy is home to many astronomical objects, including a central supermassive black hole and a large number of globular clusters (even more than in our Milky Way). The black hole at the center of the galaxy, which has a mass of about 100 million times that of the Sun, is one of the most massive black holes ever discovered.
In summary, NGC 4565 is a beautiful sight in the night sky, with its elongated disk structure making it an edge-on spiral galaxy, leading to many unique features. Studying this galaxy has shed light on many questions related to the formation and evolution of galaxies. It is definitely one of the most interesting objects in the sky.
This is the first complete imaging run with the new RC-12 Astrograph. Total exposure time was 11.3 hours.
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Image Info
- Imaged from the KPO field, in Saint Cloud, Florida
- Camera : ZWO ASI1600MM Pro
- Scope: Orion RC-12 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph, 2450mm fl, F/8
- Mount: iOptron CEM-120
- Red: 34 subframes of 300s = 170 min integration
- Green: 37 subframes of 300s = 185 min integration
- Blue: 17 subframes of 300s = 85 min integration
- Luminance: 48 subframes of 300s = 240 min integration
- Total integration time: 680 min = 11.3 hours.
- Captured via ASIAir Pro automation
- Optical tracking via ASIAir automation via the ASI120MM-S guide camera
- Separate channels stacked and LRGB integrated in Astro Pixel Processor, and processing for light pollution sky fog removal
- Image cropped, stretched, and noise processed in Nebulosity.
- Final processing in Aperture