Located in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, M 61 is nearly a twin
of our own Milky Way Galaxy, seen from a distance of 60
million light years: it is a spiral galaxy with a bright
central core and inner bar from which well-defined spiral
arms extend. The arms are characterized by dust lanes and
bright areas of new star formation. M 61 is also about
the same size as the Milky Way, 100,000 light years in diameter.
There are a number of other galaxies in the image, but perhaps
the most interesting is the spiral galaxy above and to the
left of M61, which looks like a miniature mirror image of M 61.

Image data:
Camera: Canon 350 XT (modified)
Exposure: ISO 800, 5 minutes x 28
Telescope: 10" Schmidt-Newtonian, Baader coma corrector, LPS filter