NGC 4565 – the Needle Galaxy Located between 30 – 50 million light years away, it’s the most prominent edge-on spiral galaxies we have in our view. Residing near the North Galactic Pole in the constellation Coma Berenices (named for “Berenice's Hair" in Latin and refers to Queen Berenice II of Egypt, who cut off her hair in gratitude to the gods for the safe return of her husband from battle), it has a spatial diameter of 140,000 light-years (Milky Way = 105,000 ly) and is estimated to contain a trillion stars (Milky Way 250-400 billion). With the darkness from a central dust lane obscuring much of the visual core of the galaxy, it’s very similar to our view of the core our Milky Way, and as such is studied extensively by astronomers.