This is truly extraordinary, and it is one of the primary reasons for the CCD revolution in amateur astronomy.
Galaxies come in several flavors.
Spiral galaxies, on the other hand, are varied, grand, beautiful structures that rotate about a central, perpendicular axis. They are so vast that it typically takes millions of years for peripherally located suns to complete a single orbit. Note the dust lanes and the subtle, obliquely running markings to the right and below the nucleus. These are ascribed to dust bands in the Milky Way and are well seen on the Palomar plates. This galaxy is seen nearly edge-on, but its spiral structure is evident, as is the central bulge, dust lanes, etc.