This magnitude 10.4 spiral measures a worthy 17′ by 2.2′. Its disk appears almost edge-on, tilting only 5° to our line of sight. Through the eyepiece, this galaxy’s core appears only slightly brighter than the rest. What sets the Silver Needle Galaxy apart, however, is its length-to-width ratio. View this object through a 4-inch scope, and you’ll understand why its name contains the word “needle.”

NGC 4244, also Caldwell 26, is an edge-on loose Spiral galaxy and Caldwell object in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is part of the M94 Group (the Canes Venatici I Group), a galaxy group relatively close to the Local Group containing the Milky Way. It shines at magnitude +10.2/+10.6. Its celestial cooridinates are RA  12^h 17.5^m, dec +37° 49′. It is located near a naked-eye G-class star Beta Canum Venaticorum, barred spiral galaxy NGC 4151, and irregular galaxy NGC 4214. The galaxy lies approximately 6.5 million/14 million light years away, with a redshift of +243/493 km/s. A nuclear star cluster and halo is located at the centre of this galaxy