Sculptor Galaxy: NGC 253 is the largest galaxy in the Sculptor Group of galaxies which is approx. 10 Mio LY away from our own Local Group. It is a Spiral Galaxy with a very high amount of dust, as can be seen in this image from the many dust lanes going all over the disk.It is one of the brightest galaxies in the sky, but hard to observe from Europe due to its southern latitude. This is also the reason why it was not mentioned in Charles Messier´s famous catalogue.

Please see  the Hi-Res version for closer inspection of the dust lanes.

The image was taken at the observatory of IAS at Hakos Farm in Namibia.