Common questions

Can you see M31 with telescope?

Can you see M31 with telescope?

For a more detailed view, you’ll need to use a telescope. The more light you can gather, the more detail you see, meaning larger scopes designed for deep space viewing give better results. However, any telescope will reveal the mist of stars in M31 if you have a dark sky.

Can you see M31 without a telescope?

Answer: Yes, you can see a few other galaxies without using a telescope! The nearby Andromeda Galaxy, also called M31, is bright enough to be seen by the naked eye on dark, moonless nights. The Andromeda Galaxy is the only other (besides the Milky Way) spiral galaxy we can see with the naked eye.

What does M31 mean in astronomy?

The Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy (IPA: /ænˈdrɒmɪdə/), also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula (see below), is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years (770 kiloparsecs) from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way.

Which telescope is best for Andromeda galaxy?

The Hubble Space Telescope easily resolves millions of individual stars in an outer region of the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31.

What do nebula look like through a telescope?

Most nebula looks like smudges. But, in the case of Orion and a few others, very beautiful smudges if you have enough aperture (which you would have with a Dobsonian). Here is the Orion nebula, with a 1 second exposure using a Dobsonian with no tracking. This is pretty close to what you will see though your telescope.

Who categorized M31?

Charles Messier credited Marius for the discovery of M31, unaware of the Persian astronomer’s earlier observations. This is what Messier wrote in the first edition of his catalogue (1771):

What is M31 known?

The 1.5 billion pixels in the mosaic reveal over 100 million stars and thousands of star clusters embedded in a section of the pancake-shaped disk of M31, also known as the Andromeda galaxy.

Can you see Nebula with a telescope?

Telescopes come in many different sizes. The Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and the Orion Nebula and are terrific to see with smaller telescopes. To see the more distant and fainter objects such as galaxies and other nebulae, you might find you need a telescope with a larger mirror.

Can we see M31 globular clusters with a telescope?

The Hubble Space Telescope was used to investigate globular cluster G1 in mid-1994 (published April 1996). While the easiest, G1 is not the only M31 globular cluster which is in the reach of large amateur telescopes: Amateur Steve Gottlieb has observed 18 globular clusters of M31 with a 44cm telescope.

What is Messier 31?

Messier 31 (M31, NGC 224) is the famous Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large neighbor galaxy, forming the Local Group of galaxies together with its companions (including M32 and M110, two bright dwarf elliptical galaxies), our Milky Way and its companions, M33, and others. Visible to the naked eye even under moderate conditions, this object was

How big is the Andromeda Galaxy M31?

In 2005, M31 was discovered to have a large extended stellar disk, spanning more than 220,000 light years in diameter. The galaxy was previously thought to have a diameter between 70,000 and 120,000 light years. This image of the Andromeda spiral galaxy highlights explosive stars in its interior, and cooler,…