The Galactic Eye of Sauron

Oooo, what a pretty galaxy! That's NGC 4151, a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici. This image was taken by my friend Adam Block using the 81 cm Schulman Telescope at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter in Arizona. It's an amazing 20 hour exposure! And oh my yes, you want to see the full-res version. It's a stunner. As you can see though, as beautiful as it is, NGC 4151 is a bit odd. It has far-flung and faint spiral arms, but also a brighter ring of stars and gas closer to the center. T...