NGC 4565, the Needle Galaxy

NGC 4565, the Needle Galaxy, is an edge-on spiral galaxy located in the constellation Coma Berenices. (TheSky, Software Bisque, NASA)

NGC 4565 provides an excellent opportunity to explore globular star clusters. While most of a spiral galaxy’s stars lie within a relatively flat plane, globular clusters tend to be sparsely distributed all around the galaxy, surrounding it like a diffuse shell. When seen face-on, a galaxy’s globular clusters easily get lost in the mix; when a galaxy is seen edge-on, however, these clusters stand out. (NASA)

By conducting a survey of globular clusters in several edge-on spiral galaxies, scientists have been able to study how these clusters form and evolve. Their results seem to indicate that globular clusters form with a very low metal content, but then their metallicity grows over time through subsequent mergers with other globular clusters. (NASA)

Image processed by Andrew Macica, original data from Telescope Live.

Imaging Details:

Observatory: Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile

Telescope: Planewave CDK24

Aperture: 610 mm (24 inches), f/6.5

Focal Length: 3962 mm

Camera: QHY 600M Pro CMOS

Filters: LRGB

Total Exposure: 5 hours 40 min.

Image Processing:

PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);

BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator (RC Astro);

Adobe Photoshop 25.12.4;

Adobe Lightroom Classic 15.1.1

Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.