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The constellation Andromeda is attached to one of the four corners of the great square of Pegasus. In effect, both Andromeda and Pegasus share one bright star, although for those who worry about this sort of thing, the star officially belongs to Andromeda and is designated alpha Andromedae. The constellation appears as two lines of stars coming out of a common point and forming an acute angle. One of the is made up of much brighter stars than the other, so that Andromeda sometimes appears simply as a line of four stars stretching forth from Pegasus.
Andromeda is named after another major character in the Medusa myth. Her husband and rescuer Perseus, her mother Cassiopeia and her father Cepheus are all represented by circumpolar constellations. Although Andromeda is at a point of the sky south of her parents, she can easily be found close by Perseus and Cassiopeia. As earlier mentioned, Andromeda was an Ethiopian princess rescued by Perseus, after she was chained to some rocks by the sea. If you don’t believe this, the rocks are just off the coast of Jaffa in southern Tel-Aviv.
The constellation Andromeda is best known for the Andromeda galaxy, which appears as a small white patch near the star upsilon Andromedae on extremely clear nights. If the Andromeda galaxy does not seem very impressive, remember that the light emanating from it takes 2,000,000 years to reach us. We will return to the Andromeda galaxy later in Chapter Eight.