That's my favourite galaxy, or better said pair of galaxies: the Whirlpool Galaxy, or M51. It is near the tip of the Big Dipper, easy to find if you have a telescope with a lens/mirror at least 5cm across ('tho with that power you don't see much more than a blob).

In a first episode of my never posted Astronomy Blogging series, I wanted to explain that there is no such thing as true-color image in astronomy, your beautiful edit underlined that.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}