Photo of the Week for April 3, 2015

Spring is galaxy season with the bountiful riches of Virgo, Leo and Coma Berenices well positioned in the evening sky. Situated in the indistinct constellation Coma Berenices is the Needle Galaxy, also known as NGC4565, pictured above. Under dark skies this edge-on spiral can be seen in small telescopes, but larger instruments are needed to see its full extent.

Calgary, Alberta, imager Daniel Meek used an 11-inch Celestron Edge Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope equipped with a QSI 583wsg CCD camera for this 420-minute LRGB exposure recorded over three nights in March, 2015.