For Those That Are Learning The Sky

General astronomy-related discussion (publicly viewable)
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Apollo XX
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For Those That Are Learning The Sky

Unread post by Apollo XX »

How to Find the Andromeda Galaxy in the Night Sky

Knowing where the Andromeda Galaxy is in the night sky and how to find it is almost like a rite of passage in our hobby. When you can quickly and effortlessly land your eyes or optics on the closest and brightest large spiral galaxy outside the Milky Way, you’ve made it. You’re no longer just a hobbyist, you’re an official amateur astronomer. Use the attached charts to help you get there. Binoculars are the ideal tool for this exercise.

The most reliable path to our future partner in space starts at the bright star Alpheratz in the Great Square of Pegasus. Alpheratz has the unique – but not sole – distinction of sharing significant designations in two constellations. On one hand it’s the alpha star for the constellation Andromeda, and on the other it’s the delta star for the constellation Pegasus. At magnitude 2.0 it is easily visible to the naked eye under all but the worst sky conditions.

From Alpheratz hop your way past 3.3 mag Delta Andromeda to the 2.0 mag Mirach, which again should stand out plain as day. If you’re doing this when Pegasus is in the eastern sky your next moves will be up away from Mirach. At times like the wee hours of the morning or later on in the winter the moves will be more left to right. Just rotate the chart to match the orientation of the Great Square in the sky and follow the path.

Now from Mirach simply move past 3.9 mag Mu Andromeda and put 4.5 mag Nu Andromeda in the view. And that’s it! With Nu in the view the great Andromeda Galaxy should be there with it. Under Bortle 4 skies or better it’s easily visible to the naked eye, and under skies worse than that it’s readily viewable in binoculars. Remember to consider when you’re looking at it that the light you’re seeing is from the collective shine of about a trillion stars located 2.537 million light years away. If you fancy yourself a hotshot at math then do us a favor and figure how many miles away that is, but hurry up because the Milky Way and Andromeda are barreling towards each other at a speed of about 250,000 MPH. We need to know when to put our helmets on.

PETER-FORISTER-VIRGINIA-ANDROMEDA-GALAXY.jpeg
PETER-FORISTER-VIRGINIA-ANDROMEDA-GALAXY.jpeg (33.87 KiB) Viewed 3270 times
The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest large spiral galaxy to our Milky Way, and it's a beast! Interestingly enough, professional astronomers speculate that when we collide there will most likely be no physical collisions between the passing stars and planets. Gravitational distortion, yes, but no crashes. Under very good sky conditions you might be able to also see the satellite galaxies M32 and M110 in your binoculars.

Another way to find Andromeda in the sky involves using part of the constellation Cassiopeia as a pointer, and although it’s simply a straight shot from star-to-galaxy, it’s not exactly straight and it’s a pretty good distance. It works, but it’s not as reliable as starting at Alpheratz.

To use Cassiopeia as a starting point simply fashion a pointer out of the stars Navi, Caph and Shedar, then shoot a line across the sky to Andromeda. With a little practice you’ll learn how exactly not straight to go and soon you’ll know how to bump into Andromeda from there too.

M31 Finder Anno Color.png
M31 Finder Anno Color.png (317.74 KiB) Viewed 3270 times
Both paths are shown on this chart, which is presented here in lovely color. Download the PDF below this line for a printer-friendly copy of the text and charts.


And there you have it. These cool Fall evenings are a wonderful time to spend a little time outside after supper plying the dark heavens. Knowing how to find stuff makes that time so very enjoyable, and understanding that most of what you’ll find is actually located inside our own galaxy makes seeing objects in the great beyond especially satisfying.

Keep Looking Up!
Mike McCabe
"The purpose of life is the investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the heavens." - Anaxagoras
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mrgizmo65
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Re: For Those That Are Learning The Sky

Unread post by mrgizmo65 »

Thank you Mike for your latest contribution adding to the I formation in the bb. Having a go to mount is a nice thing.But learning the sky and how to find things is a much better way of doing it and it doesn't need batteries to do it. I must take time to study and find things for myself. Please keep them coming, Jerry
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Bruce D
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Re: For Those That Are Learning The Sky

Unread post by Bruce D »

Or, wait 3 billion years- it will be much easier to spot :lol: :lol: :lol:
Bruce D
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mrgizmo65
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Re: For Those That Are Learning The Sky

Unread post by mrgizmo65 »

well Bruce do you think it will still be there???
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Paul D
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Re: For Those That Are Learning The Sky

Unread post by Paul D »

Mike,

Finding Andromedia, is a rite of passage for all of us in the hobby. It's too bad that our skies are so light polluted because at a dark site you know as well I do that Andromedia sticks out like a sore thumb in the night sky. I have to confess that my very first object I ever found with my Hardin 10" dobsonian was M13. Funny how I remember that night like it was yesterday.

The night was far from a great night and it was during the summer, there was a slight bit of low level fog but it was the first weekend that I actually had the scope out after Mark and Matt showed me how to collimate. I remember looking up and seeing stars and trying to decern constellations. I recognized Hercules right away and remember seeing a star chart that put M13 about half way between two stars in the torso. At the time I didn't have a right angle corrective image finder so I was struggling at first to understand how to move the telescope in the right direction. I then saw the fuzzy blob in the finder and moved to look in the eyepiece. When I looked in the eyepiece I was hit with utter disappointment. There was nothing there and I couldn't at first figure out why. I remember thinking to myself was it so foggy that I can't see it? Then I thought that if I could see it in the finder I should easily see it in the scope. So I began moving the scope slightly around where I was pointing and BAM!!!!! it appeared in the eyepiece. I was in awe of what I was looking at even considering to this day it was the worst I had ever viewed M13. I will never forget that night because it is etched in my brain and part of the reason why I enjoy showing new people what is out there for them to see even with a pair of binoculars.

I couldn't find it initially due to the fact that I never aligned the finder scope to the main scope. It's really amazing what I have learned to do over the years with this hobby and one thing that I am proud of is finding objects without the use of any type of finder. As bad as my first view of M13 was from that day I was hooked and started to find targets in my very first book "Turn Left at Orion" The first few weeks of owning my first real scope I would always visit M13 first.
Paul...

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daedalus1
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Re: For Those That Are Learning The Sky

Unread post by daedalus1 »

A very good post.

I got a friend interested enough in astronomy that he bought a 8 inch f/6 dob. The first thing we found together by star hopping was the Andromeda galaxy. No one ever just says "oh, wow!" to that view; philosophical discussion always follows.

Tony
rose
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Re: For Those That Are Learning The Sky

Unread post by rose »

When I'm at stellafane I go from cassiopeia, because of darker skies you can see Andromeda naked eye. Here in Rehoboth I use binoculars and star hop from the other way.
Best view ever of Andromeda was in Boothbay harbor ME looking over the water naked eye. It was the best night observing with my 6in newtonian. I found so many objects that night. Dark skies rule!
Rose A.
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