"This bright galaxy is one of the most famous examples of an edge-on spiral galaxy, oriented perpendicularly to our line of sight so that we see right into its luminous disc. NGC 4565 has been nicknamed the Needle Galaxy because, when seen in full, it appears as a very narrow streak of light on the sky.
Studying galaxies like NGC 4565 helps astronomers learn more about our home, the Milky Way. At a distance of only about 40 million light-years, NGC 4565 is relatively close by, and being seen edge-on makes it a particularly useful object for comparative study. As spiral galaxies go, NGC 4565 is a whopper — about a third larger than the Milky Way."
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/needle-edge.htmlOne of the extraordinary galaxies that hooked us from the beginning due to the way it is shown from Earth's point of view, in profile.
Maurizio did several sessions in the first months of 2020 but was processed after a year. He used the L-Pro and Enhance filters. For some reason at that time during the image stack I used the 'drizzle' a lot and in this particular case I remember having problems with patterns in the background, in addition to those associated with the 'creative' calibrations.
The final image that I produced at that time seemed acceptable to us although we were never completely convinced because it was very dark. Making this count of job postings I wanted to try if I could do something about it and I think at least I have clarified the background more and gave more light to the Needle Galaxy.
Processed Feb. 13th 2021
Reworked Dec. 2021
https://twitter.com/AstroOtus/status/1360997428430835714
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