Astronomy Magazine – Your source for the latest news on astronomy, observing events, space missions, and more.

A galactic eye

Rod Pommier from Portland, Oregon

Spiral galaxy M94 earns the nickname of the Cat’s Eye Galaxy for its hypnotic visual appearance — the disk surrounding its core is highlighted by a bright blue ring of star formation, called a starburst ring. Outside the disk lies what appears to be a faint outer ring that is actually a pair of faint spiral arms. This imager used a 17-inch scope at f/6.8 to take nearly 10 hours of LRGB exposure.