The Silver Needle

[petevasey]

The edge on spiral galaxy NGC 4244 in Canes Venatici is also known as the 'Silver Needle' galaxy.   At approximately 13.5 million light-years away it is relatively close to us being within the Canes Venatici I Group, a galaxy group near the Local Group containing the Milky Way, and so is quite large in this image. It would almost fill the field of view if it was face on. A rare clear night on 25th March gave me the opportunity to image it. Good clarity, but as often is the case, only moderate seeing. QSI 683 on RC10 with SX AO unit. Luminance 16 x 10 minutes, RGB each 6 x 10 minutes, all binned 2x2.

Cheers,

Peter

 

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by petevasey
Corrected orientation of galay - North is now up

[Craney]

It's actually got silver bits in it !!!   Nice one.

[DougM43]

That a great image, you can see the galaxy has some depth to it, 👍 lovely 

[geoflewis]

That's a cracking image Peter

[petevasey]

Thanks everybody.  The full size image is now on my web site, here.

Cheers,

Peter