Quote from The Deep Sky Field Guide to Uranometria 2000:
"Very small, not very bright nucleus; in short bar, several filamentary branching arms. ICs 3550, 3551, 3552, 3554, 3555, 3563, 3563 are condensations in this galaxy."
NGC 4559 is a Spiral Galaxy with a short bar in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is relatively close (43 million light years) and the largest telescopes can resolve some of its stars. The brighter star clouds and H-II regions in the galaxy have their own Index Catalog (IC) numbers.
NGC 4559 was the host of Supernova 1941A, which was an unusual Type II-L (linear brightness versus time graph). Some astronomers now believe that Type II-L supernovae all have the same maximum brightness just like the more famous and numerous Type Ia's. If this is true they can be used to measure the distance to their host galaxy.
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George Normandin, KAS
June 12th, 2002