The "Spiral Nebula" M51, 1899

This is Keeler's four-hour exposure of the face-on spiral galaxy M51 and surrounding area. M51 is a comparatively bright and close-by galaxy; a more distant, edge-on spiral (arrow) can be seen as a faint, slightly bulging streak above and to the left of M51. (The circular ring around the bright star to the right is an artifact of the telescope and photographic plate.)

Lick photographic plate archive. This image has been cropped from the original plate.