NGC 4244, The Silver Needle Galaxy
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Apil 12, 2026
NGC 4244 is a loose edge-on spiral galaxy. It is also catalogued as Caldwell 26 and nickanamed the Silver Needle Galaxy. It lies a little more than 14 million light years away from us in the constellation of Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs), and is a member of a nearby galaxy cluster called the M94 Galaxy Group.
Most of the images I found of this object show it as mainly bluish. However, I found there was plenty of hydrogen alpha (Ha) signal, which provided the pink knots. These structures are similare tro nebulae like the Orion Nebula in our own Milky Way galaxy.
For scale, the long edge of this galaxy (including the faint outer wisps at both ends) is more than half the diameter of a full Moon.
Tekkies:
Acquisition, focusing, and control of Paramount MX mount with N.I.N.A., TheSkyX. Guiding with PHD2. Primalucelab low-profile 2″ Essato focuser, ARCO rotator and Giotto flat panel. Equipment control with PrimaLuce Labs Eagle 4 Pro computer. All pre-processing and processing in PixInsight. Acquired from my SkyShed in Guelph. Average transparency and seeing. Acquired under little to no moonlight from April 7-12, 2026.
Celestron 14″ EDGE HD telescope at f/11 (3,931 mm focal length) and QHY600M-SBFL camera binned 2×2 with Optolong filters.
38 x 5m Red = 3hr 10m
39 x 5m Green = 3hr 15m
37 x 5m Blue = 3hr 05m
29 x 5m Ha = 2hr 25m
Total: 11hr 55m
Preprocessing: The WeightedBatchPreProcessing script was used to perform calibration, cosmetic correction, weighting, registration, integration and drizzle integration (1X).
RGB and SynthL masters: A master RGB image was made from the Red, Green and Blue Drizzled masters using ChannelCombination in RGB mode. A synthetic luminance (SynthL) master was made from all four masters using ImageIntegration with weighting by SNR.
Gradient Removal: DynamicBackgroundExtraction was applied to the SynthL, RGB and Ha masters.
Colour Calibration: BlurXterminator was applied to the RGB master with Correct Only selected, followed by ColorCalibration.
Deconvolution: BlurXterminator was applied to the RGB, SynthL, and Ha masters with Automatic psf , star sharpening set to 0.5, and non-stellar set to 0.9.
Linear Noise Reduction: NoiseXterminator was applied to the RGB, SynthL, and Ha masters with settings Amount=0.9 and Interations=4.
Ha Continuum Subtraction: The Seti Astro Continuum Subtraction Utility was used to remove continuum emissions from the Ha master using the red channel of the RGB master as the continuum reference image.
Stretching: HistogramTransformation was applied to make pleasing images from the RGB, SynthL and and Ha masters. Approximate background level after stretch was 0.09 for the RGB master, 0.1 for the SynthL master and 0.08 for the Ha master.
Nonlinear Processing
SynthL and RGB Combination: LRGBCombination was used to replace the CIE L* channel of the RGB image with the SynthL
Star Removal and processing: StarXterminator was used to remove the stars from the SynthLRGB master with Unscreen checked. Colour was increased in the stars-only image by increasing saturation using CurvesTransformation through a star mask.
Initial Saturation Boost: CurvesTransformation’s saturation tool was used to boost colour in the galaxy in the starless SynthLRGB image. A range mask made with RangeSelection was used to protect the background.
H-alpha Blending: The contiuum-subtracted Ha was added to the SynthLRGB image using Jurgen Terpe’s CombineHaWithRGB script, using a mask to protect the background.
Nonlinear Noise Reduction: NoiseXterminator was applied to the SynthLHaRGB image with settings Amount=0.9 and Iterations=5.
Contrast Enhancement: LocalHistogramEqualization was applied twice. A Contrast Limit of 1.5 and 1 iteration was used for each application (scale 150, strength 0.25, and scale 40, strength 0.35).
Sharpening: MultiscaleMedianTransform was used to sharpen Layers 1 – 5 with strengths of 0.02, 0.02, 0.02, and 0.02, respectively.
Star Restoration: Stars were added back into the image using the PixelMath expression combine(starless, stars_only, op_screen())
Final Steps: Background, galaxy, and star brightness, contrast, and saturation were adjusted in several iterations using CurvesTransformation with masks as required. ICCProfileTransformation (sRGB IEC61966-2.1; Relative Colorimetric with black point compensation) was applied prior to saving as a jpg. The finder chart was made using the FindingChart process.
Fantastic image, Ron. I struggle to capture clean galaxy images from home – you nailed this one!
Thanks!