Eagle-Eye Astronomy
If you've ever wanted to claim to see the farthest thing than anyone else, now is your chance!
At 25 million light years, the Andromeda Galaxy takes the prize for the farthest object in the night sky visible to the naked eye.
Even in the darkest sky with the best of eyes, you can only see roughly 2000 stars, all of which are part of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The few nebulae visible to the naked eye (The Orion Nebula, Lagoon Nebula, Trifid Nebula) all reside within our own galaxy.
So we have to look beyond our galaxy to see extraordinarily distant objects.
Despite popular belief, the Andromeda Galaxy IS NOT the closest galaxy to our own. Until recently, astronomers thought that the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) galaxies were the closest. Since these are only visible in the southern hemisphere, most North Americans have never heard of them.
The Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, however, was only recently discovered in 1994. It is very large fuzzy patch of sky above Sagittarius in the direction of the center of our galaxy. Scientists simply didn't notice it before because it is so large and dim, and being in the direction of the Milky Way's center, has a large number of Milky Way stars in front of it. It is believed that this dwarf galaxy is slowly being ripped apart by the extreme gravitational forces of our galaxy.
This map of the constellation Sagittarius shows the position of the Sagittarius dwarf as a blue cloud. Since the constellation is also known by its asterism as "The Teapot", the dwarf galaxy makes it appear that "The Teapot" is steaming!
I just think that's downright neat and I'm not afraid to say it!
Getting back to the Andromeda Galaxy, M-31 will be almost directly overhead in the night sky (for mid-Northern latitudes) until early January.
To help you find M-31, here is a sky map and a closeup star map.
For more info about M-31, visit the SEDS M-31 page
Good Night!
At 25 million light years, the Andromeda Galaxy takes the prize for the farthest object in the night sky visible to the naked eye.
Even in the darkest sky with the best of eyes, you can only see roughly 2000 stars, all of which are part of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The few nebulae visible to the naked eye (The Orion Nebula, Lagoon Nebula, Trifid Nebula) all reside within our own galaxy.
So we have to look beyond our galaxy to see extraordinarily distant objects.
Despite popular belief, the Andromeda Galaxy IS NOT the closest galaxy to our own. Until recently, astronomers thought that the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) galaxies were the closest. Since these are only visible in the southern hemisphere, most North Americans have never heard of them.
The Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, however, was only recently discovered in 1994. It is very large fuzzy patch of sky above Sagittarius in the direction of the center of our galaxy. Scientists simply didn't notice it before because it is so large and dim, and being in the direction of the Milky Way's center, has a large number of Milky Way stars in front of it. It is believed that this dwarf galaxy is slowly being ripped apart by the extreme gravitational forces of our galaxy.
This map of the constellation Sagittarius shows the position of the Sagittarius dwarf as a blue cloud. Since the constellation is also known by its asterism as "The Teapot", the dwarf galaxy makes it appear that "The Teapot" is steaming!
I just think that's downright neat and I'm not afraid to say it!
Getting back to the Andromeda Galaxy, M-31 will be almost directly overhead in the night sky (for mid-Northern latitudes) until early January.
To help you find M-31, here is a sky map and a closeup star map.
For more info about M-31, visit the SEDS M-31 page
Good Night!
posted by Dan at 9:51 PM
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