North is to the top.
NGC 4395 is a remarkable low surface brightness spiral galaxy, about 26 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Canes Venatici. In addition to being a Seyfert 1 Galaxy, NGC 4395 is noted for having the smallest known central black hole. Galactic black holes typically weight in at a million to a billion solar masses. NGC 4395's black hole is only 300,000 to 400,000 solar masses.
When viewed edge-on, galaxies typically have a central bulge. NGC 4395 has no bulge; it is essentially a flat disk. This odd shape may be linked to the size of the black hole. It may have already "eaten" all the stars in the center of the galaxy. This would also explain why the black hole doesn't seem to be growing and has a small size.
Taken from 4/2/2011 to 5/5/2011 Chino Valley, AZ
RCOS 12.5" Ritchey-Chrétien w/ an SBIG STL-11000 camera using Astrodon Gen II filters
LRGB Exposure Details:
Lum 495 min. (33 x 15 min.)
RGB 675 min. (15 x 15 min. each)
For more info see URL http://bf-astro.com/ngc4395/ngc4395.htm