In the constellation of Pisces can be found a
fine example of a face-on spiral galaxy. This is M74. It is a
beautiful spiral around 95,000 light-years in diameter. It is
located about 35 million light-years from Earth. It is moving
away from us at nearly 800 km/sec. Color photographs of this
galaxy reveal that its spiral arms are littered with clusters of
young, blue stars. It is believed to be very similar in size and
shape to our own Milky Way galaxy. With a magnitude of 9.4, it
may be a challenging object to locate in binoculars. Larger
telescopes will reveal the best amount of detail.
