Messier 74 (NGC 628) is a spiral galaxy out of the top-drawer. This far-flung island universe yields awe-inspiring images, its sweeping spiral arms being presented in the ‘grand-design’ manner. This term is reserved for face-on spirals characterised by prominent spiral arms that wrap around the nucleus in a fashion similar to the magnificent Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51), probably the archetypal grand-design spiral. Messier 74’s has two, well-defined spiral arms that are less chaotic than those of say Messier 101, another member of the grand design club, and a small yet bright nucleus. Messier 74 appears almost totally face-on to our perspective, it being tilted away from us by just five degrees. This helps astronomers to easily study Messier 74’s spiral arms. We have a front-row seat to trace dust lanes seen primarily in their inner region and young, hot blue star clusters and glowing pink, diffuse HII regions, sites of further star formation, seen dotted along their entire length. How to observe Messier 74 (NGC 628) is located in the far eastern reaches of Pisces, the constellation whose western end, including its ‘Circlet’ asterism, lies to the south of the Great Square of Pegasus. M74 is located north of Pisces’