The Needle Galaxy is nearly 50 million light-years away. I used 11 hours of exposure time to capture it from my backyard.

Image from preview.redd.it and submitted by chucksastro
image showing The Needle Galaxy is nearly 50 million light-years away. I used 11 hours of exposure time to capture it from my backyard.

chucksastro on December 29th, 2019 at 16:08 UTC »

Image Details

NGC 4565 is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 30 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It lies close to the North Galactic Pole and has a visual magnitude of approximately 10. It is known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile.

If you look closely, many more galaxies can be seen in this picture, one of which is interacting with the Needle Galaxy.

I used 11 hours of exposure time to capture it from my backyard.

Follow me on Instagram @chucksastrophotography if you would like to see what's possible to be captured from our own backyard and to see what telescopes I use.

Hardware

Imaging Telescope: Explore Scientific 127mm ED Refractor (952 focal length)

Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Cool

Focuser: MoonLite 2.5" Focuser with Motor Auto-Focus

Field Flattener: HoTech 2" SCA Field Flattener

Mount: Celestron CGX

Polar Alignment: QHYCCD PoleMaster

Guide scope: Orion ST80

Guide Camera: Lodestar X2

Kayeetmeoffabridge on December 29th, 2019 at 16:09 UTC »

Beautiful. Insane to think that trillions or more galaxies exist in our universe.

Arch3591 on December 29th, 2019 at 17:38 UTC »

Beautiful photo, but eerily unsettling.

Just knowing the immense unreachable distance another Galaxy is from us - one containing its own island of billions of stars - many of which potentially hosting life. All of that life we will never discover for ourselves locked away in inconceivable isolation.