C38 — Needle Galaxy
Galaxy in Coma Berenices
About
The Needle Galaxy, a spiral seen edge-on from Earth, which gives it a thin streak about 16′ long. It lies in Coma Berenices, with estimates of its distance spanning roughly 38 to 53 million light-years, and spans about 176,000 light-years. William Herschel found it in 1785.
Imaging tips
- At 16′ × 3′ it frames at 1,510–2,520 mm on APS-C; one imager found 480 mm left it too small, and a tripled focal length of 1,960 mm showed it in detail.
- Sits at 22.4 mag/arcsec², faint for its size: one image used 4 hours of LRGB at 1,960 mm, another 4 hours 10 minutes of RGB at 3,912 mm.
- NGC 4562 lies about 12′ away (approximate), a wider-field neighbour, and many small galaxies are scattered around, especially beyond the upper-right end.
- Seen edge-on, so the central bar does not show in visible light; Spitzer data revealed it.
- Best in March and April; it peaks near 66° altitude from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 16′ × 3′
- Magnitude
- 9.6
- Coordinates
- RA 12h 36.1m, Dec +25° 59′
- Framing, APS-C
- 1510–2520 mm
- Framing, full frame
- 2320–3870 mm
- Best months
- Mar, Apr
- Peak altitude
- 66° from 50°N, 81° from 35°N