NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals a majestic disk of stars and dust lanes in this view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2841, which lies 46 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). This image was taken in 2010 through four different filters on Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. Wavelengths range from ultraviolet light through visible light to near-infrared light. Click for a larger version. Credit and image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

Ursa Major, aka: the Great Bear, Big Dipper or the Plough depending on your location, to our eye is a beautiful and very well known constellation.  At first glance it appears to be devoid of structures other than the stars that create the pattern.

Nothing could be further from the truth, I’ve spent hours looking around with a telescope and it’s amazing what is really there.

Take this galaxy for example, NGC 2841, a wonderful example of a non-barred spiral galaxy – actually called a Flocculent Spiral Galaxy.  You too can see this just point your telescopes at R.A. 9h 22m 02.64s Dec. +50° 58′ 35.47″, dark skies will be required as the magnitude of this galaxy is a little over 10. Well why not? It is 46 million light-years away.

While your view won’t match this amazing Hubble image, you will still get a sense of satisfaction by seeing it for yourself.  That said, just look at this amazing image!  Click it for a larger version, even better go to Hubblesite to see the full sized versions.