dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (11/18/86)
The most distant thing visible to the unaided eye -- after this. November 18 The Andromeda Galaxy The naked eye can see farther than you know -- to the fraternal twin of our own Milky Way galaxy -- the great galaxy in the constellation Andromeda. This object is the nearest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. It's the only exterior galaxy visible without optical aid from the northern hemisphere. To see it, you need a very dark sky -- one free from city lights and moonlight. Since the moon is now waning, the evenings will soon be dark enough to let you glimpse the Andromeda galaxy. A prominent star pattern called the Great Square of Pegasus can guide you to the constellation Andromeda. The Square is large -- its sides are roughly the size of your hand as seen at arm's length. The constellation Andromeda consists of a simple line of stars -- extending from the Square toward the northeast. The Great Square -- and the constellation Andromeda -- together look something like a kite with a tail -- a large pattern almost directly overhead in the November evening sky. To find the galaxy, begin by locating the conspicuous Square overhead. Start from the northeast corner and let your eyes roam diagonally away from the square, up among Andromeda's stars To the naked eye, the mighty Andromeda galaxy looks like an elongated fuzzy star. But the haze is really the combined light of stars -- hundreds of billions of stars in the shape of a giant spiral pinwheel. There are billions of spiral galaxies in the universe -- this one is our nearest neighbor -- and the most distant thing visible to the naked eye. It's so far away that the light you see it by left the galaxy more than two million years ago. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin