Date: May 6, 2010 11:36PM PDT - May 7, 2010 1:16AM PDT

Location: Victoria Centre Observatory, Observatory Hill, Victoria, BC, Canada

The Needle Galaxy is a magnificent spiral galaxy, and is likely similar-shaped as our own Milky Way galaxy, however we are viewing it edge-on. This galaxy lies in the faint constellation Coma Berenices and is the largest edge-on galaxy visible in our skies. This color image reveals the galaxy's bulging central core dominated by light from a population of older, yellowish stars. The core is dramatically cut by obscuring dust lanes which lace its thin galactic plane. NGC 4565 lies about 30 million light-years away and is
over 100,000 light-years wide. Smaller Galaxy NGC4562 is also visible in this field in the lower right corner.

Equipment: 14" Meade LX-200 SCT & Hyperstar f/2 optic; QSI 583c colour CCD camera; Paramount ME equatorial mount, guided with SBIG ST2000XM (earlier) and Orion autoguider (later).

Image parameters: 43x1 minute exposures; 1x1 bin; one shot colour. 10x1 minute dark frames; 7°C ambient temperature; CCD temperature -20°C

Processing:
ImagesPlus 3.82 x64 - Auto Image Set Processing for QSI 583c; calibrate using dark frames. Digital Development - aggressive contrast stretch applied.
ACDSee Pro 3: colour balance, crop, sharpen, reduce colour depth from 48 bit to 24 bit; dodge processing artifacts; save as jpg.

The stars are egg-shaped in this image, caused by a shift in focus and mirror flop.