Finding the Andromeda Galaxy (aka M31)

Richard Rathe 2010

Here's a bit of astronomical lore I picked up a few years ago. I learned the sky at summer camp; I have looked through numerous telescopes over the years; I even took an astronomy class in college—but no one ever pointed out the Andromeda Galaxy (the most distant and largest object we can see with our naked eyes!). So I invented my own way to find it using the triangle in Cassiopeia as my pointer. This is a great target for binoculars!

You will need dark skies, look slightly to the side (peripheral vision is better in low light), and you should see a fuzzy snowball. Once you know where to look use binoculars or a small telescope. Keep in mind that you are only seeing the galactic core. The composite below gives you a sense of how enormous it really is!