Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and almost every other spiral galaxy exhibits two or more spiral arms.  NGC 4725, however, seems to have only a single arm that wraps around it several times and fads off to nothing.  The cloudy area around the galaxy is the outer "wrapping" of the spiral arm and while it looks like just a misty cloud, it is indeed millions of less densely populated stars, likely containing billions of planets, moons, and other solar system like objects.

Optics:
Camera:
Exposure:

Celestron C11 F/10 (2800mm Focal Length)
SBIG ST10XME with Adaptive Optics
LRGB = 190:70:100:70 minutes

Date:
Location:
Imager:

May 12-14, 2007
Columbus, Texas
Kent E. Biggs