Where is m31 in the sky

This dark sky finder map opens a new tab is a great resource for seeing how dark your sky is and for finding your closest darker sites. Note the constellation of Cassiopeia above the Andromeda Galaxy. Both routes to finding M31 use a method known as star-hopping.

This is where we begin with an easily recognizable object and then use a series of steps, or hops, from there to our object. Our second route is to use the Great Square of Pegasus and two bright stars in the Andromeda constellation to hop to Andromeda Galaxy. Cassiopeia is perhaps the easiest constellation to find in the night sky after the Big Dipper, which makes it perfect to use for hunting our target.

The image below can be clicked for a full-screen version. This route can be made more reliable. Draw an imaginary line shown in orange roughly joining the stars Kappa Cas, Shedar, and Zeta Cas, and extend it towards the bright star Pi Andromedae. In practice, the easiest way to find Andromeda using this route is to point your telescope or astronomy binoculars at Shedar and follow the imaginary line south.

The second star-hopping route begins at a place that is slightly harder to pick out than Cassiopeia but is much closer to the galaxy itself. The Great Square of Pegasus is a famous site in night skies and is highlighted in orange on the image below. Note the location of the constellations of Cassiopeia and Andromeda and Andromeda Galaxy. Back Next. Buy from Amazon.

It is about twice the size of the Milky Way, lies 2. To find the Andromeda galaxy, first locate the Great Square of Pegasus using this month's sky map and then star-hop over to M Click Here for Information or to Buy this Poster To the eye and in binoculars the Andromeda galaxy looks like a small, elongated "faint cloud.

The galaxies we see in these constellations are not actually located in the constellations, they are only viewed along the same line of sight.

Were we to actually go to another galaxy, even the Andromeda galaxy which is the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way, only 2. It makes no sense to talk of the constellations of Andromeda or Virgo as seen from another galaxy, since from another galaxy any observer would see all of the Milky Way stars together, just as we see a small patch of fuzzy light when we look at the Andromeda galaxy.

It is not that Andromedans would see our constellation Andromeda differently; they would not distinguish it from the Milky Way at all. The Andromeda galaxy has been known from early times. Al-Sufi described it as a "little cloud" in AD. Simon Marius observed it in through a telescope, and described it as like a flame of a candle.

It was not easy for astronomers to understand what a galaxy looks like. In even a moderately dark location it is revealed as a smudge in the sky in the constellation of Andromeda. There are a number of ways to find it, but here are two popular methods.