Several IC objects (e.g., IC 3550, 3551, 3552, 3554 and 3555) are stars near or small parts of the main galaxy. Based on a recessional velocity of 815 km/sec, NGC 4559 is about 38 million light years away. Although this calculation is uncertain because peculiar (non-Hubble expansion) velocities could be a substantial part of the recessional velocity, the distance is in good agreement with redshift-independent distance estimates of 25 to 50 million light years. Given that and its apparent size of 10.7 by 4.4 arcmin, the galaxy is about 120 thousand light years across.

Also (unnecessarily) referred to as NGC 4565A.

NGC 4565 is about 30 million light-years from our Milky Way galaxy. Dust scattered throughout the disk obscures its light, but the nuclear bulge is clearly visible above and below the dust lanes. A little over 100,000 light-years in diameter, NGC4565 is thought to be nearly identical to our own galaxy, and as a result, it is presumed that our galaxy would look very much like this if seen from the same angle.

     M104 lies at the nearer edge of the 60 million light year distant Virgo cluster of galaxies, and at nearly a trillion solar masses, is one of the more massive galaxies in that group, even though relatively small (about 50 thousand light years across). The massive central bulge of the galaxy almost totally obscures the structure of the spiral disk, but a recent reworking of this image, seen on a page about M104, reduces the glare from the nucleus, allowing the spiral structure to be better revealed.