As promised in "Part II of 10 favourite galaxies, by madbadgalaxyman"
here are some images of NGC 5078, reproduced at various levels of contrast and brightness and at various stretches.
The dust lane morphology is very complex; you can try to convince yourself that it is normal, but it is easier to convince yourself that it is peculiar.
The bulge seems to not really end at any particular galactocentric radius, perhaps simply merging with the halo of this galaxy.
This shows the inner part of this galaxy. It is possible to imagine that there are parallel dust lanes visible here. There is a nice colour contrast between the old stars of NGC 5078 and the blue colour of its dwarf companion.
This shows the outer part of NGC 5078. Note the vast bulge, which could almost be called a halo. The faint arms of the small companion galaxy may be tidal in origin (originating in an interaction between the two galaxies)
This image is an attempt to show both inner and outer parts of NGC 5078. The outer parts of the 'equatorial' dust lane do look distorted or split or bent, in some way.
This image is an attempt to emphasize the planar flat 'disk' component of NGC 5078. Probably, the stellar distribution in the disk is relatively normal, but the dust distribution does show good evidence of being at least moderately unusual (for instance, the equatorial dust lane seems to either split or bend on the far left hand side)
This is an attempt to show zones of equal surface brightness, displayed as lines or annuli. (similar to isophotes) . It is quite evident that the bulge seems to extend way way out into the field, right out to where we would ordinarily think the halo of a galaxy is;
this we cannot really distinguish a spheroidal bulge from a spheroidal halo in NGC 5078......
perhaps the spheroidal component of NGC 5078 should be called a bulge-halo!