dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (10/14/85)
In the autumn sky, using just your eye, you can see a galaxy exterior to our Milky Way. More -- when we come back. October 14: The Galaxy in Andromeda There's a fuzzy patch of light visible in a dark sky this time of year. If you know about where to look -- and if you've got a good dark moonless sky -- the patch is easy to see using just your eye. Some early astronomers called it the "Little Cloud." This little cloud is really a galaxy -- a collection of hundreds of billions of stars. It's the great galaxy in the constellation Andromeda -- affectionately called M3l by amateur and professional astronomers. M31 is the nearest and brightest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. It's the only one easily visible to the naked eye in the northern hemisphere. Let the Great Square of Pegasus guide you to the Andromeda galaxy. The Great Square is easy to find. It's located overhead each evening now -- and it really looks like a large square with four fairly bright stars marking the corners. The constellation Andromeda extends from one corner of the Square. It's a graceful, slightly curved line of stars. Together, the Great Square and Andromeda resemble a kite with a tail -- sailing high overhead in the evening sky. The Andromeda galaxy is just north of the tail of the kite. It'll be easy to see for the next month or even two. But be sure to look on a moonless night, from out in the country. When you gaze at this fuzzy patch of light, you're really seeing the combined illumination of hundreds of billions of stars. At two million light-years away, this galaxy is the most distant thing visible to the eye! Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin