NGC 1350
This image is of the spiral galaxy NGC 1350, a galaxy which is probably a bit bigger than ours - the Milky Way - and is around 850 85 million light years away from us. The image was taken in the year 2000 with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) based at Cerro Paranal in Chile. The VLT produces some fantastic results but doesn't have the fame of the Hubble Space Telescope.

A colour-composite of the spiral galaxy NGC 1350 taken with FORS2 at the ESO Very Large Telescope. The image, totals 16 minutes of observations. CREDIT: ESO/Henri Boffin
If you want to look for this galaxy yourself, it can be found in the constellation Fornax (the Furnace) at a declination of -33, so you will need to be in the southern hemisphere to get a good look.
Posted in astro blog by Stuart on Saturday 01st Oct 2005 (12:41 UTC) | Permalink