The Andromeda Galaxy, a spiral galaxy much like our own, will be high above the western sky over New Hampshire Wednesday night. The Moon will not be visible in the sky that evening, providing a wonderful opportunity to view Andromeda, especially away from city lights. It is also known as M31, for its listing number in a catalog of celestial objects developed by Charles Messier in the late 18th century.
At a distance of 2.5 million light years away from us, this is the most distant object visible to the human eye without the aid of a telescope or binoculars. Should you have a telescope or binoculars, however, this will be a beautiful sight, and it should certainly be on your list of the first deep-sky objects that you view.
The Milky Way contains approximately 300 billion stars, and M31 is composed of perhaps one trillion stars – three times as many as our home galaxy. However, recent measurements suggest that The Milky Way contains significantly more dark matter, possibly making our galaxy more massive than Andromeda.
To find M31, go outside about eight pm, and look west. Now look about thirty degrees north (to the right) of due west, and about thirty degrees above the horizon (a fist held at arm's length is about ten degrees across). Here, you should see a blur of white light that will resemble a small bright cloud. This is Andromeda.
For a special treat in New Hampshire this Wednesday, head on up to the Perkins Observatory at Dublin school for a free astronomy event, giving the public a chance to view Jupiter, Venus and the Orion Nebula with their 14” schmidt/cassegrain telescope. This telescope gathers over 1200 times more light than the eye alone.
Jonathan Weis, who is hosting the observatory event, states that the purpose of holding events at the observatory is “simply that people gain an appreciation for how much richer the sky is than it appears. This is especially true when we can show objects like the Orion Nebula, something that is a big surprise to most viewers.”
The Milky Way Galaxy and Andromeda are racing toward each other at 120 kilometers per second (75 miles per second) and will collide in about four-and-a-half billion years. When this happens, however, the event should not be catastrophic, as most stars will miss one another like two swarms of bees colliding mid-air.
Comments