Needle Galaxy
| Polish version is here |
Among the many galaxies accessible to amateur telescopes, only a few remain etched in an observer’s memory long after the session has ended. One of the most striking examples is NGC 4565, widely known as the Needle Galaxy. It is a spiral system seen almost perfectly edge on. Its apparent magnitude is approximately 9.6m, and its angular dimensions measure about 16′ by 2′. The galaxy lies at an estimated distance of roughly 30 to 40 million light years.
The Needle Galaxy is classified as a type Sb spiral. Its distinctive appearance results from the nearly ideal alignment of its disk plane with our line of sight. As a result, we see a remarkably thin stellar disk, a prominent central bulge, and a well-defined dark lane of interstellar matter cutting across the luminous structure along its entire length. This dust lane provides clear evidence of substantial concentrations of gas and interstellar dust within the galactic plane. These are the regions where new stars actively form.
If we adopt a representative distance of about 35 million light years, the true diameter of NGC 4565 is approximately 100,000 to 120,000 light years. This places it in the same size range as the Milky Way. Observing NGC 4565 therefore offers a perspective similar to viewing our own Galaxy from the outside, revealing the large-scale structure of a mature spiral system.
Observations
February 02, 2026, about 10:30 p.m. - Katowice, Poland
urban conditions, very high level of light pollution
NGC 4565 lies in the northern part of the constellation Coma Berenices, close to its border with Ursa Major. Because this region of the sky rises high above the horizon in spring, the galaxy is a convenient target for observers in Poland from late winter through early summer. The most favorable conditions occur in April and May, when the galaxy culminates at night and reaches its highest point in the sky.
This galaxy is a classic example of an edge-on spiral system. Its slender, needle-like profile, crossed by a sharply defined dust lane, provides an almost textbook view of galactic disk structure and the layered distribution of stars and interstellar matter within a spiral galaxy.
Photo 1 parameters:
- Total exposure time: 80 minutes (stack of 320 RAW frames at 15s each)
- DWARF3
- Lens: f=150mm (aperture: 35mm)
- Mount: photographic tripod
Further readings:
- Jensen J. B., Tonry J. L., Barris B. J., Thompson R. I., et al., Measuring Distances and Probing the Unresolved Stellar Populations of Galaxies Using Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuations, Astrophysical Journal, 2003, 583(2), pp. 712-726
- Wu H., et al., Intermediate-band surface photometry of the edge-on galaxy NGC 4565, The Astronomical Journal, 2002, 123(3), pp. 1364-1380
- Gregory S. A., Thompson L. A., The Coma i Galaxy Cloud, The Astrophysical Journal, 1977, 213, pp. 345-350
- Harris W. E., Globular cluster systems in galaxies beyond the Local Group, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1991, 29, p. 543
Marek Ples