**Backdated for historical purposes**
There was a popular artist at the time that went by Christian Lassen, who did a wide series of art with sea creatures against backdrops of outer space. They were really prolific in the later 90s where I lived, especially on binder covers.
With double interests in outer space and marine life, I had done a few pieces of my own in inspiration of them. I leaned to the same concept, but using more unusual or rare subjects; all while portraying something more realistic. So instead of dolphin with a planet, you get a fin whale with a barred spiral galaxy.
I don’t have a 100% on what the stellar object could be, but I’m leaning towards NGC 1300 from what I’m seeing in images. I would’ve had no Internet access at the time, and wasn’t borrowing large amounts of books at the time. So it had to come from something that was likely in our collection. I’ll come back and update this post if that assumption changes.