The light that we see left that galaxy about the time the earliest humans walked on the Earth. Even at this great distance, it is so large that it stretches longer than ten moons wide in the sky. This galaxy is so big and bright that it is easily seen in binoculars. On a dark night away from the city, you can even see it with your naked eye. It will look like a fuzzy patch of light in the telescope.
Nebulas are clouds of gas or dust in space, far outside our solar system.
Most the nebulas we can see with small telescopes are within our own galaxy. Nebulas can be bright because they are illuminated by stars, or because they glow from their own light. Nebulas can be dark, blocking out the light from stars or bright nebulas behind them. Planetary nebulas are the shells of gas expelled by old stars that have burned up most of their fuel. The Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula near the bright star Vega, one of the brightest planetary nebulas in the sky, looks like a hazy ring of smoke in the telescope.