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NGC 2685 (also known as the Helix Galaxy) is a lenticular and polar ring Seyfert Type 2 galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It is about 50,000 light-years across and about 42 million light-years away from Earth. It is receding from Earth at 883 kilometers per second. It is an object of great scientific interest, because polar-ring galaxies are very rare galaxies. They are thought to form when two galaxies gravitationally interact with each other. "The bizarre configuration could be caused by the chance capture of material from another galaxy by a disk galaxy, with the captured debris strung out in a rotating ring. Still, observed properties of NGC 2685 suggest that the rotating ring structure is remarkably old and stable."

It was discovered by Wilhelm Tempel in 1882.

L = 17 * 1800 sec. bin1, RGB = 8 * 1000, 1100, 1200 sec. bin2, in each channel.

Total exposition - 15.8 hours.

Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop.