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Silver Needle Galaxy (NGC 4244)
spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici
The Silver Needle is a spiral galaxy seen exactly edge-on, a thin streak of light about 16 arcminutes long and barely two wide. It has no bright core, just an even, low-contrast sliver, which makes it a good test of a dark sky and a long total exposure. It sits in Canes Venatici, near the Whale and Hockey Stick galaxies.
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// Key facts
- Catalog
- NGC 4244
- Also known as
- C 26, Caldwell 26
- Type
- spiral galaxy
- Constellation
- Canes Venatici
- Size
- 16′ across
- Brightness
- Magnitude 10.2
- Distance
- about 14 million light-years
- Peak month (any location)
- Mar
- Typical prime months
- Jan to Jun
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Filter
- No filter (broadband); a light-pollution filter is optional
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How to image Silver Needle Galaxy
- Use 800 to 1,500 mm so the needle spans a good part of the frame; at shorter lengths it is a faint scratch.
- Surface brightness is low, so moonlight and light pollution hurt. Plan several hours of exposure under a dark sky.
- NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 are a short hop away, so you can plan a night around the whole group.
Framing: what focal length?
NGC 4244 is small, so a "60% of the frame" focal length would be impractical. Here is how much of an APS-C frame it covers at common long focal lengths; expect to crop.
| Focal length | Share of the frame width |
|---|---|
| 1,000 mm | about 20% |
| 2,000 mm | about 40% |
| 3,000 mm | about 59% |
How high does it climb from your latitude?
The highest point NGC 4244 reaches in the sky. Above about 60° is excellent, 30° to 60° is workable, and under 30° you are looking through a lot of air.
| Latitude | Highest point | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 55°N (Scotland, Alaska) | 73° | High in the sky |
| 45°N (Minneapolis, Milan) | 83° | High in the sky |
| 35°N (Los Angeles, Tokyo) | 87° | High in the sky |
| 25°N (Miami, Cairo) | 77° | High in the sky |
| 35°S (Sydney, Santiago) | 17° | Stays low |
Also worth imaging
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