Other local group members are also large, spreading their light out so much as to make them extremely difficult to see at all. The vast majority of galaxies appear as small hazy patches of sky. Elliptical galaxies are round or egg-shaped, often with a bright, starlike center. They look the same from all directions and are otherwise featureless. Some of the brighter ellipticals are M87 and M84.
Spiral galaxies are disk-shaped like our own Milky Way.
They are flat with a round bulge at the center, much like a classic flying saucer. Their apparent shape depends on the angle from which we are viewing them. A face-on spiral galaxy will generally appear round. The center may appear starlike, or it may be a round or oval bright spot. Photographs will show winding spiral arms in such galaxies, but in all but a few cases these arms are invisible in the telescope.