NGC 4565 in Coma Berenices is one of the most prominent and famous edge-on spiral galaxies in the sky. It is also called the Needle Galaxy.
NGC 4565 was discovered by William Herschel in 1785. Visible through a small telescope, some sky enthusiasts consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier missed.
Described by Dreyer in the NGC as "considerably bright, very large", the edge-on spiral NGC 4565 is another showpiece for amateurs, with a visual magnitude of 9.6 and apparent dimensions of 16' x 3'. Coincidentally, it is located in the sky almost directly at the North Galactic Pole.
A large dust lane cuts across the nucleus of the galaxy. It blocks and reddens the light from the interior, and is easily seen in an 8 inch telescope. This edge-on galaxy is very much like two other notable examples: M 104 and NGC 891.
NGC 4565 is 30 to 50 million light years distant. Images of NGC 4565 are often used in textbooks, as it is assumed that this galaxy resembles our own Milky Way, seen from outside its galactic equatorial plane.