it's an entire galaxy!!!

Saturday evening, a friend and I decided to try out a telescope I got for the Let's Talk Science program a while ago. Since it is November, and Manitoba, being outside at night becomes far more agreeable when dressing right, so even though it was just around zero degrees, I equipped myself with three layers on my legs, and 5 on upper body (including wool, fleece and a downjacket as the crowning piece. A friend of mine let me "inherit" a pair of horse skin mittens. They are amazing - they manage to keep my hands warm, an accomplishment previously unheard of. Anyways, you get my point; it's important staying warm.
After learning the little quirks of the telescope, we managed to observe the comet Holmes (presently bigger than the sun..!) which due to its size actually was best observed through binoculars. Maiko was very impressed: "WOW! WOW! That's totally awesome!" etc. Slightly paraphrased perhaps. I was equally ecstatic about it. We also checked out Mars, the halfmoon, and M31 (the Andromeda galaxy). Now, a galaxy is cool. There's not many things cooler than a galaxy. And M31 is a very pretty specimen. From a small telescope like ours, it looks however mainly like a fuzzy elongated... fuzzball. The following conversation thus took place:
Maiko, upon observing fuzzball galaxy for first time, slightly disappointed: "That's IT?"
Heather, somewhat exasparated: "It's an entire GALAXY!" This gave me the giggles... But it turned out an eye-opener for me too. Maybe I've grown too used to what's going on in my life. What is it really we are looking at? From where? And how? Every trial of writing down that feeling of incredible awe turns out halfbaked. But seriously... it's an entire galaxy!!!!!