On the night of October 11, 2020 I pointed my 6" Newtonian towards the constellation Andromeda to get a view of the Andromeda Galaxy, or M31. I used my 32mm Plossl eyepiece to allow myself to fit the whole galaxy in the field of view. Unfortunately light pollution washes out much of the dimmer parts of the object and you're left with the bright nucleus and inner core of the galaxy. Also I was able to pick out nearby galaxies M32, and M110, both of which were very small and faint fuzzy blobs, no detail could be detected.
M31 is probably one of the most well known galaxies in the northern hemisphere given it's size, and how close it is to Earth. M31 is 2.5 million light years away, and is the most distant object in the night sky visible to the naked eye. Also Andromeda galaxy from one end to the other is 110,000 light years. One of the more well known facts about Andromeda is that it is heading towards the Milky Way on a collision course in about 4.5 billion years, and newer evidence pointing at a sooner time of 3.9 billion years.
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| M31 the Andromeda Galaxy in Andromeda |
This sketch was done on black canson paper, and the stars in the field of view were placed using a white charcoal pencil. The galaxies in the sketch were placed using a white pastel pencil and a blending stump. A kneaded eraser was used for shaping the galaxy, and for dimming the stars to add more depth and realism to the final sketch.
If you would like to know where to point your telescope in the night sky to find M31, and see a time lapse of me sketching this object at the eypeiece, then check out the video below:
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neutron stars and black holes
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