On cool crystal clear autumn evenings, that's the best time to view our sister galaxy, M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. This galaxy is generally recognized as the furthest celestial object from the Earth which can be viewed with the naked eye. This galaxy is easily viewed under clear dark skies, in fact, you've probably viewed it before and wondered what it was as it shows up as a smudge just to the northeast of the Great Square of Pegasus.
This celestial object is located 2.9 million light years from Earth and as mentioned, is easily visible to the naked eye, it's a wonderful sight in binoculars and even a more amazing sight under a moderately powerful telescope with good optics. This past September I viewed M31 from up in Maine and managed for the first time to see the dust lanes that bisect the galaxies core.
This galaxy is gravitationally bound to our galaxy, the Milky Way. Scientists estimate that the Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy are on a collision course and will some day have a cataclysmic encounter! Don't fret too much, this is predicted to happen in about 11billion years, so we have plenty of time to plan :-)
This photograph was taken this past September from my backyward in Bedford, NH using my Tak E-160 telescope and my modified canon 350d. It is a composite of 15 5 minute exposures. If I take this photo again this year, I will reduce the exposure time to try to bring out some detail in the core of the galaxy which is completely washed out in this photo.
So next time you're under a clear dark sky in the Autumn, look directly overhead for that "smudge" just to the north east of the Great Square of Pegasus, now you know what it is.
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Posted by: mietwagen | March 12, 2009 at 02:36 PM