| Home | Articles | Guide to Observing | Tour of the Constellations | Book Reviews |
Andromeda (Messier Object 31 - M31) appears to be two lines of stars emanating from the corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. One of the square's corner is officially part of Pegasus and is called alpha Andromedae or Alpheratz which is derived from the Arabic for the "Horse's Navel". Apparently Pegasus had a very oddly located belly button. Alpha Andromedae is followed by 3 stars between magnitude 2 and 3: delta, beta and gamma Andromedae that form a more or less straight line. Another dimmer line of stars also emanates from Alpheratz starting with the stars pi and mu Andromedae that forms an acute angle with the brighter line.
Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia who ordered her to be tied to the rocks in order to mollify the sea god Poseidon where she was eventually rescued by Perseus. According to one tradition Cassiopeia's rock is just off the shore of Jaffa in southern Tel Aviv.
Andromeda appears to be two lines of stars emanating from the corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. One of the square's corner is officially part of Pegasus and is called alpha Andromedae or Alpheratz which is derived from the Arabic for the "Horse's Navel". Apparently Pegasus had a very oddly located belly button. Alpha Andromedae is followed by 3 stars between magnitude 2 and 3: delta, beta and gamma Andromedae that form a more or less straight line. Another dimmer line of stars also emanates from Alpheratz starting with the stars pi and mu Andromedae that forms an acute angle with the brighter line.
Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia who ordered her to be tied to the rocks in order to mollify the sea god Poseidon where she was eventually rescued by Perseus. According to one tradition Cassiopeia's rock is just off the shore of Jaffa in southern Tel Aviv.
If you draw a line from beta to mu, it will point directly to M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. The Andromeda galaxy is almost a twin to our Milky Way galaxy. It too is a spiral with two spiral arms emerging from a central core and contains 300 billion stars.
The Andromeda Galaxy is the farthest object than can be seen through the naked eye. The light entering that came from the Andromeda Galaxy took 2.2 million years before in entered your eye. M31, the Andromeda Galaxy is accompanied by two smaller galaxies (M32 and M110) that can be seen through binoculars. Perseus beheaded it.
Pisces