A distant Milky Way galaxy

A whopping 130 million light years away and sporting a distinctive and detailed dust lane
running the full length of the galaxy, IC2531 is very similar in appearance to our own
spiral Milky Way galaxy, were it to be viewed edge on and from a great distance....
actually, that's pretty much what we do from 30 000 light years out from the center of
our galaxy :-) .... as beautifully revealed in photos like this:

“Nightmare” by Michael Goh. Dumbleyung Lake, Australia.