The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565) is similar to what our own Milky Way Galaxy would look like edge on. The Needle Galaxy is approximately 30 to 50 million light years away. Care was taken in processing this image to reveal the dust lanes along the center-line of the galaxy. Also notice the galaxy NGC 4562 in the upper left of the image, approximately 41 million light years away.
In addition many background galaxies are visible around the Needle Galaxy. Subframes for this image were taken in 2013 and 2019. 5 hours of luminance data and 1 hour each of RGB. Putman Mountain Observatory: RCOS 16″ SBIG ST11000M CCD camera with adaptive optics.
