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Before it gets too uncomfortable to be outside under the night sky, be sure, if you haven’t before, to look for Andromeda Galaxy. It can be seen with the naked eye if you are blessed with both good vision (with or without correction) and a dark night time sky. The latter is harder and harder to come by these days.
Use the constellation Cassiopeia to find it. That means being able to find that constellation, and once you see it revolving generally high overhead to the northeast, it is as easy to spot as the Big Dipper. It is shaped like a W, with one triangle more open than the other. The more acute triangle is a pointer towards Andromeda, about 5 star-to-star distances away, using Cassiopeia as both a pointer and measuring tool.
Through a pair of binoculars, you’ll see a distinct pinwheel spiral blur. The light that reaches your eye left the galaxy’s billion-star light source 2.3 million years ago and is just now getting here. And it is the closest galaxy to our own.
While you’re out there in the fresh dark air, if it’s sufficiently dark and clear, you’ll easily see the Milky Way–our home galaxy, also a spiral–whose disk of stars is hard to imagine because we’re inside it. Basically, every spot of light you see with the naked eye in the nighttime sky is inside it–except Andromeda.
Regarding the latter: we failed to find it last night with a friend’s telescope, partly because it was practically straight overhead and impossible to get your head behind the spotting scope. So look for it as soon as it gets dark enough while it’s a bit lower.
Use constellation Cassiopeia to find Andromeda galaxy
M31: Great galaxy in Andromeda | Clusters Nebulae Galaxies | EarthSky
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“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” ― John Muir
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Wow. You are our resident astronomer, too. I love all the sciences except physics, which is too hard for me. I hope to be in a dark enough sky next spring in AZ or NM. I’ll print out your link to use then.
alas my eyes are not good enough now, but Orion I can still see and I have been known to climb onto a flat roof at 4am in order to catch a first glimpse of it.
Hey Mouse…careful on those roofs. But don’t stop now! Keep looking up.
Really appreciated your M31location advice/party ttrick… I am recently back into the astronomy hobby and have found that I am having to learn the sky all over again in light-polluted New York. Take care, Jim McAward, Long Island, NY