I wanted to see and draw NGC 4013 since I got the 2001 April issue of Meteor in my hands. The cover photo was the Hubble image of this galaxy. A perfect edge-on spiral with a beautiful and detailed dust lane and a foreground star superimposed on it - almost exactly at the center.

The eyepirce impression is not as spectacular as the Hubble image. The galaxy is relatively bright and the edges are somewhat contrasty. The inner parts are inhomogenious - numerous bright spost are visible in it and they can be drawn by position. The foreground star is obviously visible. The center of the galaxy is a little bit SW of it. The dust lane is extremely hard to see. After several hours of observation it is sort of visible at the center of the galaxy and in a bright section SW of it. Between these parts and on the other side of the galaxy I coudn't see it. On the NE part there is a brighter thread on the north side (below the position of the dust lane).

Comparison with the photograph

The photo on the left, courtesy of Adam Block was made by Ray and Emily Magnani and Adam Block using a 20" RC telescope. The original photograph has been cropped and my inverted drawing rotated to show a similar area of the sky.

By comparing the photograph and the drawing it is visible that I didn't see the size / the ends of the galaxy precisely (see the position of the bright star above the galaxy). But to my surprise the details of the galaxy can be matched relatively well. See for example the position of the center or the little bright knot below the foreground star or the bright thread below it. The dust lane was much harder to see visually than it is visible in the photo.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the inner part of NGC 4013 can be seen below. This photograph was the main motivation for me to draw this galaxy. Although it is probably totally impossible to see the fine details in the Hubble image with one's own eyes.