r/space· constellation_prize@constellation_prize

Autumn evenings are when you can see another galaxy with your own eyes, and here's how I find it

Longer nights are my favourite part of fall. By mid-evening the Summer Triangle is still hanging high in the west, Cassiopeia's big W is climbing in the northeast, and the Great Square of Pegasus is up in the east. That square is the key. Find the corner of the Square that has a line of bright stars trailing off it like a handle. Follow that line away from the Square: skip the first star, stop on the second. From there turn toward Cassiopeia and hop up two fainter stars. Right beside the second one, if the sky is dark enough, there's a soft oval smudge. That's the Andromeda Galaxy. Binoculars make it obvious once you know where to look. The first time I found it I kept the binoculars up until my arms shook. The light landing in your eye left there roughly two and a half million years ago. It's the most distant thing most of us will ever see without a telescope.