Andromeda in the night sky how to find. Collision: what will happen? Observing the Andromeda Galaxy

A cold autumn evening... Distant stars tremble and twinkle above the tops of the yellowed trees. In the south, the Great Summer Triangle is visible - the three brightest stars. But its time passes: closer to midnight, the triangle approaches the horizon, and on the southern slope, the place is occupied by a large bucket of the constellations Pegasus and Andromeda.

For more than two thousand years, since the time of Hipparchus and Eratosthenes, the constellation of the autumn sky Andromeda flickers brightly among a scattering of distant stars.

The legend of the constellation Andromeda

At a time when magic ruled the world, in the era of the gods of Olympus, in a distant country called Ethiopia, King Cepheus ruled. He had a wife, Cassiopeia, and a daughter, Andromeda.

And everything would have been fine in the country of King Cepheus, if not for the boasting of his lovely wife Cassiopeia. Once, the king's wife boasted that she was more beautiful than nereids and nymphs. The sea beauties heard about it. Resentment surged over the edge, and they complained to the god of the seas, Poseidon. Being his daughters and granddaughters, they understood that he would listen to them and not leave unpunished a terrible insult.

Then Poseidon got angry and sent a terrible monster to Ethiopia. The terrible whale constantly came out of the sea and destroyed the country. Then King Cepheus was saddened, having learned the whole truth from his wife, and went for advice to the oracle of Zeus. He listened to him and advised to give his daughter Andromeda for a monster - Kita, in order for peace to come in the country. But how could one sacrifice one's own daughter? In complete disarray, Cepheus wandered home. After some time, the people learned about the advice of the oracle and forced the king to resolve this issue.

Pay

Andromeda, chained to a rock, awaited her death in horror.

But suddenly Perseus appeared unexpectedly, having learned the whole truth, he began to wait for the monster to fight him.

Happy end of story

As in any good mythical legend good has conquered evil.

But not without exceptions. Andromeda was betrothed to Finney, the brother of Cepheus. He appeared at the wedding of Perseus and Andromeda and demanded the return of the bride. But Perseus was not going to give away the beautiful bride. He took out the head of the Medusa Gorgon and turned Phineus into stone. Such is the history of the times of magic and gods. And we will involuntarily remember her, watching in the sky how Andromeda flickers brightly - the constellation, the legend of which is so beautiful and instructive.

How to find Andromeda in the sky?

After reading interesting legend, most likely, you will want to see Andromeda with your own eyes. Finding her is easy. The easiest way to find the constellation is in the fall. In the period from September to early December, the constellation Andromeda can be observed from the beginning of twilight until morning. In the evening, the asterism is in the east, a little closer to midnight - in the south. Closer to the morning shifts to westbound. First you need to find a giant quadrangle - Pegasus Square.

To the left of the Square, you can see a chain of stars of the same luminosity. This is exactly what the stars of the constellation Andromeda are.

You can find the desired asterism in another way. First, find the constellation Cassiopeia, it looks like the letter M or W, depending on the position of the asterism in the sky. The stars of Andromeda are directly under this "letter". With the onset of December, the constellation Andromeda shifts to the west. Closer to spring, the asterism is already in the northwest direction. And with the approach of summer, it comes out only at dawn, and it is quite difficult to notice it.

The city lights are fading and the stars are shining

Of course, even a person with a rich imagination is difficult to imagine a girl, looking at the "handle" in the sky. However, these three stars are not all constellation - Andromeda (photo below) takes much large area in the sky. On the north side, the asterism borders on the constellations Pegasus and Cassiopeia, on the south - on the Triangulum and Pisces, and on the west it is bounded by the Lizard and Pegasus.

However, to see all the stars of the Andromeda constellation, you will need to go outside the city, where there is no night light. A little getting used to the dark, you will be amazed a huge number stars in the sky that are visible naked eye. Take a look at our constellation Andromeda - Alpha Andromeda forms the upper left corner of Pegasus Square - the girl's head. The following objects δ, σ and θ form the shoulders of Andromeda, β, μ and ν of the constellation - her waist. Other objects - γ and M51 Andromeda - her legs. The girl's hands are marked with stars λ on one side and ζ on the other.

You see that the girl's arms are spread out to the sides. Why? The answer is obvious: she is chained to a rock. If you look closely, the constellation Andromeda really resembles the figure of a girl chained to a rock.

Walking away from the city lights, you saw how the "handle" took on the shape of a girl from an ancient legend.

Some terms in plain language

It may be a bit difficult to remember or understand some of the description.

We will explain to you plain language some of the terms and expressions used in the article:

1. Giants are stars much larger than our Sun (it is a yellow dwarf).
2. The temperature in Kelvin is 273 degrees higher than in Celsius (0 degrees Celsius translates to 273 degrees Kelvin).
3. A light year is the distance that light travels in one year (for example, light travels from the Sun to Earth in 8 minutes 19 seconds).
4. “Spectral class” is often mentioned - scientists determine the temperature of a distant star using a certain spectrum (like a rainbow with different width stripes of all colors).
5. The stars of the constellations (objects) are designated, starting with the brightest, using the Greek alphabet: α, β, γ, and so on. They may have, in addition, separate name. For example: Alferatz or α Andromedae.

Constellation Andromeda: description of the stars

Let's start with the brightest star in our asterism.

Alpheratz is the brightest star in the constellation Andromeda. Arabic in translation means "horse's navel". From antiquity and the Middle Ages until the 17th century, this star belonged simultaneously to two constellations - Pegasus and Andromeda.

Alferatz is a blue subgiant with a temperature of 13,000 degrees Kelvin, emitting 200 times more light than the Sun. It is located at a distance of 97 light years from Earth. A study of the spectrum showed that Alferatz is a pair star. It is considered a bright representative of the amazing class of mercury-manganese stars.

In their atmosphere, an excess of europium, gallium, mercury and manganese can be observed, and the share of all other elements is insignificant. Scientists speculate that main reason anomalies can be a strong influence of the radiation and gravity of the star.

β constellation Andromeda - Mirah, a fairly large object, belongs to the group of red giants.

Alamak - γ Andromedae, is the third brightest star in the constellation. it a complex system, which consists of four bright components. Alamak is one of the beautiful double stars that can be observed even through a small telescope. Its main yellow star has a bluish companion and is considered a K3 giant. The temperature of the object reaches about 4500 K. Almak's radius is 70 times greater than that of our luminary.

These are the main characteristics of the three most bright stars in the constellation Andromeda.

So where was the rock that Andromeda was chained to? This question was asked by many geographers of the past. According to Strabo, the rock was located in Iop, not far from the city of Tel Aviv. The Jewish chronicler Josephus Flavius ​​(1st century AD) even claimed that prints from the chains of Andromeda and the remains of a monster could be found on the shore!

As for Ethiopia, it is quite far from Israel. Obviously, this rock was on the shores of the Red Sea, and Andromeda herself was a black woman. True, according to Herodotus, all the events described took place on the territory of India. Definitely the question remains open. It is quite possible that the legend told about real events, but transformed into a kind of myth that has come down to our time.

Andromeda is a galaxy also known as M31 and NGC224. It is a spiral formation located at a distance of approximately 780 kp (2.5 million from the Earth.

Andromeda is the galaxy closest to the Milky Way. It is named after the mythical princess of the same name. Observations in 2006 led to the conclusion that there are about a trillion stars here - at least twice as many as in the Milky Way, where there are about 200 - 400 billion of them. Scientists believe that the collision of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy will happen in about 3, 75 billion years, and as a result, a giant elliptical or disk galaxy will be formed. But more on that later. First, let's find out what the "mythical princess" looks like.

The picture shows Andromeda. The galaxy has blue and white stripes. They form rings around it and shelter hot red-hot giant stars. Dark blue-gray bands contrast sharply against these bright rings and show areas where star formation is just beginning in dense cloud cocoons. When viewed in the visible spectrum, Andromeda's rings look more like spiral arms. In the ultraviolet range, these formations rather resemble ring structures. They were previously discovered by the NASA telescope. Astronomers believe that these rings indicate the formation of a galaxy as a result of a collision with a neighboring one more than 200 million years ago.

Moons of Andromeda

Like the Milky Way, Andromeda has a number of dwarf satellites, 14 of which have already been discovered. The most famous are M32 and M110. Of course, it is unlikely that the stars of each of the galaxies will collide with each other, since the distances between them are very large. About what will actually happen, scientists still have a rather vague idea. But a name has already been invented for the future newborn. Mlekomed - this is the name of the unborn giant galaxy scientists.

Star Collisions

Andromeda is a galaxy with 1 trillion stars (10 12), and the Milky Way - 1 billion (3 * 10 11). However, the chance of a collision of celestial bodies is negligible, since there is a huge distance between them. For example, the nearest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is located at a distance of 4.2 light years (4 * 10 13 km), or 30 million (3 * 10 7) diameters of the Sun. Imagine that our luminary is a table tennis ball. Then Proxima Centauri will look like a pea, located at a distance of 1100 km from it, and the Milky Way itself will extend in breadth for 30 million km. Even the stars in the center of the galaxy (namely, where their largest cluster) are located at intervals of 160 billion (1.6 * 10 11) km. It's like one table tennis ball for every 3.2 km. Therefore, the chance that any two stars will collide during a merger of galaxies is extremely small.

Collision of black holes

The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way have a central Sagittarius A (3.6*10 6 solar masses) and an object inside the P2 cluster of the Galactic Core. These black holes will converge at a point near the center of the newly formed galaxy, transferring orbital energy to the stars, which will move to higher trajectories over time. The above process can take millions of years. When the black holes come within one light year of each other, they will start emitting gravitational waves. Orbital energy will become even more powerful until the fusion is complete. Based on simulation data from 2006, the Earth may first be thrown almost to the very center of the newly formed galaxy, then pass near one of the black holes and be erupted outside of Mlecomeda.

Confirmation of the theory

The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching us at a speed of about 110 km per second. Up until 2012, there was no way to know if a collision would occur or not. To conclude that it is almost inevitable, the Hubble Space Telescope helped scientists. After tracking the movements of Andromeda from 2002 to 2010, it was concluded that the collision would occur in about 4 billion years.

Similar phenomena are widespread in space. For example, Andromeda is believed to have interacted with at least one galaxy in the past. And some dwarf galaxies, such as SagDEG, continue to collide with milky way creating a unified entity.

Studies also show that M33, or the Triangulum Galaxy, is the third largest and most bright representative The local group - will also participate in this event. Its most likely fate will be the entry into orbit of the object formed after the merger, and in the distant future - the final merger. However, a collision of M33 with the Milky Way before Andromeda approaches, or our Solar System is thrown out of the Local Group, is ruled out.

The fate of the solar system

Scientists from Harvard argue that the timing of the merging of galaxies will depend on the tangential speed of Andromeda. Based on the calculations, they concluded that there is a 50% chance that during the merger the Solar System will be thrown back to a distance three times the current distance to the center of the Milky Way. It is not known exactly how the Andromeda galaxy will behave. Planet Earth is also under threat. Scientists say there is a 12% chance that we will be thrown out of our former "home" some time after the collision. But this event is not likely to have strong adverse effects on solar system, and celestial bodies will not be destroyed.

If we exclude planetary engineering, then by the time the surface of the Earth will be very hot and there will be no liquid water left on it, and hence no life.

Possible side effects

When two spiral galaxies merge, the hydrogen present in their disks contracts. Begins enhanced education new stars. For example, this can be observed in the interacting galaxy NGC 4039, otherwise known as "Antennas". In the event of a merger between Andromeda and the Milky Way, it is believed that there will be little gas left on their disks. Star formation will not be as intense, although the birth of a quasar is quite likely.

Merging result

The galaxy formed during the merger is tentatively called Mlecomed by scientists. The simulation result shows that the resulting object will have an elliptical shape. Its center will have a lower density of stars than modern elliptical galaxies. But a disk form is also likely. Much will depend on how much gas remains within the Milky Way and Andromeda. In the near future, the rest will merge into one object, and this will mean the beginning of a new evolutionary stage.

Facts about Andromeda

• Andromeda is the largest galaxy in the Local Group. But probably not the most massive. Scientists suggest that more is concentrated in the Milky Way and this is what makes our galaxy more massive.
• Scientists are exploring Andromeda in order to understand the origin and evolution of formations like it, because it is the closest spiral galaxy to us.
• Andromeda looks amazing from Earth. Many even manage to photograph it.
• Andromeda has a very dense galactic core. Not only are huge stars located at its center, but there is also at least one supermassive black hole hidden in the core.
• Its spiral arms were bent as a result of gravitational interaction with two neighboring galaxies: M32 and M110.
• There are at least 450 globular star clusters orbiting inside Andromeda. Among them are some of the densest that have been found.
• The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object that can be seen with the naked eye. You will need a good vantage point and a minimum of bright light.

In conclusion, I would like to advise readers to raise their eyes to the starry sky more often. It keeps a lot of new and unknown. Find some free time to watch space this weekend. The Andromeda Galaxy in the sky is a sight to behold.

If the weather is fine in your area, try to find in the sky tonight Andromeda's nebula, a magnificent spiral galaxy, a neighbor of the Milky Way. In the village and small towns The galaxy can be seen with the naked eye. In larger cities, this is more difficult to do due to sky glare caused by street lighting.

Because of this, many city dwellers have no idea in which part of the sky to look for the famous galaxy. Meanwhile, the Andromeda Nebula (another designation for the galaxy is M31, object No. 31 from the Messier catalog), even in large cities, is clearly visible through binoculars or a telescope with a transparent sky. Today and in the coming days, while the Moon does not interfere with observations in the evening, it's time to try to find it in the starry sky.

How to do it?

In the article, we already wrote about how to find a galaxy using the constellations Pegasus and Andromeda. it traditional way search, which is suitable for both those who are looking for the galaxy with the naked eye, and for searching with binoculars or a telescope. (In the latter case, optics should be used from the star Mira in the constellation Andromeda.) If this method seemed too complicated for you, or if you could not identify the galaxy in the sky, try another way. Start your search starting from the constellation Cassiopeia.

Late in the evening in November, the constellation Cassiopeia is at its zenith. Its shape strongly resembles the letter M or the Latin letter W. Picture: Stellarium

Cassiopeia- a small constellation that is visible on the territory of Russia all year round. It is very easy to recognize and remember it: the main stars of the constellation form a figure that is very reminiscent of a Latin letter W(or an inverted letter M). In autumn, the constellation Cassiopeia appears at dusk in the northeastern sky and during the evening rises high above the horizon, almost to the zenith. Did you find a constellation? Now notice that the right half of the celestial W is sharper than the left. This sharper half of the constellation is an arrow pointing towards the Andromeda galaxy.

Use the sharper right side of the W as a celestial arrow pointing towards the Andromeda Nebula. Picture: Stellarium

The distance from the tip of the arrow to the nebula is about 4 times greater than between neighboring stars that form the letter W of Cassiopeia.

Before you go outside, practice this image without connecting lines or constellation names. The Andromeda Nebula is shown on it as an oblong foggy speck. Picture: Stellarium

Remember that even very dark night The Andromeda Galaxy is only a faint speck of light to the naked eye. This is not surprising, because despite the fact that M31 contains almost a trillion stars, the distance to it is huge and amounts to almost 2.5 million light years. Through binoculars, M31 looks like an elongated milky haze about the size of the moon. And only with a very good telescope you can see some details in its structure and a couple of satellite galaxies.

Some readers ask why the Andromeda galaxy is called a nebula. This is how it happened historically. When astronomers first invented telescopes, they began to find strange hazy specks all over the sky, similar to pieces of the Milky Way. Such spots are called nebulae, but astronomers had a very vague idea of ​​what their true nature was. In the end, it turned out that some of the nebulae were very distant clusters of stars (spherical like M13 and scattered like the Pleiades), another part was even more distant galaxies, and the third part, indeed, turned out to be clouds of interstellar gas. But historically, the brightest galaxies and clouds of gas are still called nebulae, although their nature, of course, is completely different.

The Andromeda Galaxy is a huge island of stars, consisting of a trillion stars. This is a galaxy that is larger than our Milky Way, moreover, the closest to us. It is also called the Andromeda Nebula because it looks like a blurry spot in the sky, visible even to the naked eye.

This galaxy is in the Local Group of Nearest Neighbors, but this one is the closest of all. Although “close” here is a loose concept, since we are separated by 2.5 million light years. So when you look at this object, you see it as it was 2.5 million years ago. And from there they see our galaxy, in which the human ancestor is just learning to walk on his hind legs!

You must have seen photos of this wonderful and very impressive galaxy. Since it is very large, and besides, it is located closer than others, it looks very impressive. But we see it at an angle of only 15 0, so it seems oval. In fact, this is a huge spiral galaxy, like the Milky Way. They have many similarities, although many differences.

Galaxy Nebula Andromeda contains a trillion stars, this is several times more than contains the Milky Way. Yes, and in diameter it is 2.6 times larger - from edge to edge a beam of light flies in 260 thousand years. This colossal formation is approaching us at a speed of about 300 km / s, and in 5 billion years our galaxies will intersect.

The structure of the Andromeda galaxy typical of spiral galaxies, to which ours belongs.

In the center is the core, in the center of which there is a supermassive black hole- its mass is at least 140 million solar. At a distance of only 1 light year from the black hole, like planets, young blue stars circling only 200 million years old, the origin of which has not yet been explained.

The fact is that so close to a black hole it is simply impossible for the formation of gaseous nebulae from which stars could form. A black hole of such an incredible mass simply will not allow hydrogen to gather, much less shrink into a protostar. However, this disk of 400 young stars exists. Closer to the center of the disk are old red stars. They fly in their orbits at a tremendous speed - 1000 km / s.

At a distance of 5 light years from the center, behind a disk of young stars, there is a ring of old, red ones. So in such a small volume, in addition to a supermassive black hole, several hundred stars are concentrated. But there are also their remnants - neutron stars and candidates for black holes.

So the core of the Andromeda galaxy is a rather densely populated place with all sorts of objects, moreover, it is very inhospitable and dangerous.

Attractions M31

In addition to the core, the Andromeda Nebula is also rich in other interesting objects. For example, star clusters of a new type have been discovered in it. They resemble globular clusters, but are very large - hundreds of light-years across. And many hundreds of thousands of stars enter it, and at the same time they are located not as closely as more compact globular clusters. Scientists tend to classify such objects as dwarf spheroidal galaxies.

Can you imagine? Inside the giant galaxy there are dwarf galaxies of their own. Although all of them are also incredibly huge by our standards, and it is very difficult to imagine their real size.

M31 contains the brightest globular cluster of all the galaxies in the Local Group. Called Mayall II, it is 130,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy. This cluster includes at least 300,000 old stars, and in the center of it there is a black hole with a mass of 20,000 solar masses. Scientists believe that this globular cluster is the core of one of the dwarf galaxies. Now it's just part of a giant metropolis.

There are many black holes in this galaxy - 35 are now known. There are about 450 globular clusters in it, and in our galaxy there are half as many. Perhaps there are many more of them, but the far edge is inconvenient for studying.

satellite galaxies

Our Milky Way has dwarf satellite galaxies - these are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Andromeda Galaxy also has several such satellites - the brightest and largest of them are designated M32 and M110, and they are clearly visible in the photographs. There are actually a lot of them, but they are quite small.

The origin of M32 is still unclear. Scientists believe that it was once a large spiral galaxy that was almost swallowed up by the Andromeda galaxy 2 billion years ago. The shapeless formation that we see now is the remnants of a galaxy, warped by the powerful gravity of a trillionth island. Its stars were scattered over vast spaces and now form the M31 halo - its periphery.

M110 probably suffered the same fate. Between this galaxy and the Andromeda Nebula there are many stars that are also part of M110. They are rich in heavy metals and move between galaxies all the time.

Andromeda galaxy in the sky

This star island is unique in that it can be detected with the naked eye. The Andromeda Galaxy in the sky with good vision is easily located and visible as a blurry hazy spot with a brightness of 3.44m. In fact, the galaxy occupies an area in the sky that is 7 times larger than the disk of the Moon, but due to the low surface brightness, we can only see the glow of the core. More details can be seen with binoculars or a telescope.

Find Andromeda galaxy in the sky very simple. If you look into southbound, then you can see the Great Rectangle of Pegasus, which is formed by four rather bright stars. From the upper left corner to the left is a row of bright stars - this is the constellation Andromeda. If you imagine a triangle, the vertices of which will be the second and third stars, then at the top of it there will be a noticeably foggy spot - this is the Andromeda galaxy. On a dark night, it is clearly visible, it is worth looking in that direction, it looks like a cloud.

If it is difficult to find the Pegasus Rectangle, then you can draw an imaginary line from the North Star to the alpha of Cassiopeia, and continue it - the line will just run into the desired corner of the Rectangle. Now you know, how to find the Andromeda galaxy in the night sky. But if you want to see it better, arm yourself with binoculars, although you won’t see any special details. The disk of the galaxy can only be seen with a powerful telescope.

Observing the Andromeda Galaxy

To the naked eye, the Andromeda Galaxy appears as just a hazy speck. If you look at this part of the sky, it can be detected with peripheral vision, as something ephemeral.

Andromeda galaxy through binoculars also does not show its details. However, you can already see its shape. In 10x50 binoculars, it is noticeable that it is elongated, thinner in the center, and thicker in the sleeves. You can easily detect a galaxy - satellite M110, and if you try, then M32.

Andromeda galaxy through a telescope looks much better. However, its surface brightness is small, so the larger the aperture of the telescope, the better. High magnification is not important here - the galaxy will not fit into the field of view even with a small increase. But the diameter of the lens, that is, the amount of light collected, is very important. With a 150-mm telescope, you can perfectly see the core, and large clusters in the disk of the galaxy, and dark nebulae cutting through it.

The discovery of the Andromeda galaxy and the first observations

The Andromeda Galaxy has been known for a long time. She was also mentioned by the Persian astronomer al-Sufi in his catalog, and this was in 946. However, the German astronomer Simon Marius first examined it through a telescope in 1612. Of course, with the telescope of that time, he was not able to see the details either.

When I created my catalog of nebulous objects, I included this galaxy in it at number 31.

When, in 1785, William Herschel pointed one of his telescopes at M31, and they were simply gigantic for that time, he was able to see a bright spot in the center - the core of the galaxy. However, he considered that it was just a nebula, moreover, quite close, and even calculated the distance to it. Of course, he was wrong, since M31 is located far outside our galaxy, and even much larger than it.

Only almost a century later, in 1864, the English astronomer William Huggins, based on spectral studies, suggested that the strange nebula actually consists of many stars. And he turned out to be right.

The first photo of the Andromeda galaxy was taken by Isaac Roberts in 1887. It even showed spiral arms. But all the same, it was believed that this is a galactic object, and this is a star around which planets form. That is, it was taken for a protoplanetary disk.

In 1912, the American astronomer Westo Slifer calculated the speed of this strange object and got an incredible figure - it turned out that it was approaching at a speed of 300 km / s.

We now know that M31 is a gigantic galaxy, larger than our own, located 2.5 million light-years away.

Collision between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy

The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are members of the Local Group, and they are also close neighbors. Moreover, they are approaching at a speed of 300 km / s. Each of the galaxies moves at a speed of 100-150 km / s, which gives such a large approach speed in total.

The gravity of both neighbors is colossal, and 2.5 million light years for them is a very small distance. They get over it pretty quickly. After 3-4 billion years, the galaxies will come into close contact, and after 5 billion years they will form one galaxy. What will come of this is unknown, there are only computer models, but collision of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy inevitably.

However, the Andromeda galaxy has swallowed more than one galaxy during its entire existence, it is much larger than our galaxy both in size and mass. Therefore, our Milky Way will be changing long before a direct collision - under the powerful gravity of a trillion suns. The structure will be broken, the stars will be torn from their orbits. Some will be thrown out of the galaxy, some will come into close contact with other stars. All these perturbations and gravitational influences, of course, reshuffle many planetary systems, so that billions of apocalypses in different worlds can't be avoided.

Of course, our Milky Way is also not some kind of dwarf, in terms of weight it is comparable to the Andromeda galaxy. So there will also be many changes and cataclysms. But in the end, when billions of years pass, and the stars of both galaxies acquire stable orbits in new system, it will be a completely different galaxy - much more massive and large. And it will have a lot of hydrogen, which will give rise to billions of new stars with new worlds.

Of course, our Earth is unlikely to live to see this. In 5 billion years, our Sun will be a red giant that will incinerate or consume many nearby planets. The earth will at best become a charred stone ball. And what will happen to humanity by that time is unknown. It will either fly away to other stars, or cease to exist altogether. 5 billion years is a long time, during which time the Earth managed to appear and give birth to life.

The next time you go out to look at starry sky, be sure to find that little misty speck. After all, now you know that you are looking at a huge galaxy, the radiance of a trillion stars at the same time. Their light took 2.5 million years to reach your retina. Autumn is the best time to observe the magnificent Andromeda galaxy.

M31 Andromeda Nebula.
11/28/2010, Deepsky 80\560ED telescope, WO 0.8x II corrector, Canon 1000D, ISO 1600, exposure 1 minute, 10-15 frames. Mount - EQ5

How to find the famous Andromeda Nebula (M31)? Best time for its observation - autumn, however, at other times of the year you can try to find it (for example, in the summer in the morning). To search, you must first face the northern part of the sky, find the constellation Ursa Major, draw a line from the handle of the "ladle" through the North Star, and on the continuation of this imaginary line you will see an inverted letter M or W - this is the constellation Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia is a fairly bright constellation, so you can easily find it.


Then we turn to the right, to the southeast side of the sky - we see that under Cassiopeia there are two large constellations Andromeda and Pegasus. Feature- the so-called "Pegasus Square" - four stars that form a kind of "square".


We will orient ourselves from it - we draw an imaginary line along the stars, first to the left, and then up. If you did everything right and look at the desired place with binoculars, a spyglass or a good optical finder, you will see a small bright oval cloud. Congratulations, this is the Andromeda Nebula - a huge galaxy with which our Galaxy is approaching (the collision will occur in 3-4 billion years).




In small telescopes, it is visible in the same way as in binoculars / spyglasses, but larger - a large oval spot. Several of its satellites, small galaxies (M32 and M110), also become visible. With 20x60 binoculars, it is visible throughout the entire field of view. The visual size of the Andromeda Nebula is about 3 ... 3.5 degrees - 7 times the apparent size of the Moon! In telescopes of larger diameters (from 250 mm or more), dust lanes near the center of the galaxy become available for observation.
The main guarantee of success in observations is the dark sky and the absence of flare.

In pictures, the Andromeda Nebula looks much more beautiful than visually, primarily due to the visibility of dust clouds along the center of the galaxy. The simplest images of the galaxy can be obtained with even the simplest motorized equatorial mount and a kit lens reflex camera.