Dust features in NGC 891

Two versions of a "visual" (V-band) image of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC891, taken with the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak. NGC891 exhibits prominent dust-bearing clouds in a thickened disk of interstellar material, also clearly visible in this full color WIYN image. The left panel shows the direct V-band image; the right panel shows the same image after the application of an unsharp masking technique. Individual clouds, observable through their extinction of background stellar light, have sizes on the order of a few hundred parsecs. See the article in the NOAO September 2000 newsletter.