The Andromeda Galaxy - the radiance of a trillion stars! Beautiful constellation Andromeda.

Lovers to watch starry sky and people who are serious about astronomy know that it is possible to see stunning celestial objects. The Andromeda Galaxy is one such unique phenomena. In fact, the nebula can be seen with the naked eye, its size is about seven times the size of the Moon, but a person can only notice its core - the brightest part. To view the galaxy, it is enough to use powerful binoculars, but using a telescope, you can see other details that create a more complete picture.

How to make observations correctly

When setting yourself the task of viewing the galaxy as clearly and in detail as possible, you need to follow a few simple recommendations. First of all, for observations it is worth choosing a cloudless day, when the evening sky remains absolutely clear. It is also worth choosing a place that does not have strong city lighting. Many novice astronomers cannot see many stars and space objects because of the bright city lights that illuminate the sky in the evening. Closest to Milky Way galaxy of wine to the naked eye.

To understand how to find Andromeda, it is enough to know its location. Exact data can be found in special programs, simulating the starry sky or on astronomical maps. The galaxy is located in the constellation Andromeda. To begin with, experts recommend finding the Great Square of Pegasus on the southern side of the night sky. The northeastern corner of the Square will be marked by the bright star Alferats, from which three star chains will depart, which will become part of the desired galaxy. The best time to observe Andromeda is in the fall; already in mid-September the galaxy is clearly visible throughout Russia. Main - proper preparation and finding binoculars, a telescope, and a quiet place where there are no bright lights or building lights that distort the visibility of the sky. The galaxy became one of the most important in the starry sky several thousand years ago, when ancient people could see a beautiful object in the sky. Many myths and stories have been created around the name of the nebula, which are reflected in world literature. Close to the Milky Way, the spiral galaxy is 2.2 million light-years away, contains about 300 billion stars, and measures approximately 220,000 light-years in diameter.

Astronomical observations are a very exciting activity that can “hook” any person. The night sky reveals a wide variety of objects that can be observed through a telescope, binoculars, or even with the naked eye. However, it often happens that it is difficult for a novice amateur to begin making observations. It’s good if there is a Moon and bright planets that stand out against the background of stars in the sky. What if not? Unfamiliar star patterns are usually simply confusing, and a beginner quickly loses interest in the sky.

Of course, if you want to gain experience in astronomical observations, you need to start by studying the constellations. Knowledge of the basic star patterns will allow you to navigate well in the sky and in the future find a wide variety of celestial objects - from comets to distant galaxies. But you often hear that learning constellations is boring. In this case, you can combine the useful with the pleasant and, together with the constellations, find other celestial objects: planets, nebulae, star clusters.

A modern city dweller has no idea how many interesting things can be seen in the sky with the naked eye, without the help of any optics! We are not used to looking at the night sky due to strong light pollution. However, even in urban conditions (unless you are a resident of a metropolis) it is possible to see fairly faint celestial objects. To do this, first of all, you should find a place protected from street lights. A park, city outskirts, or even a corner of a house will do. By finding cover and giving your eyes time to adjust to the darkness, you'll be surprised at how many faint stars appear in your field of vision.

In the mid-autumn evenings, the constellations dominate in the south Pegasus And Andromeda. Start your acquaintance with the sky with these constellations! They are easy to find, and most importantly, they will become a reference point for finding other autumn constellations and the famous M31 galaxy, known as Andromeda Nebula.

To find the constellation Pegasus, look south after 20:00. Halfway from the horizon to the zenith, a large square of four stars of almost equal brightness will catch your eye. This drawing (without the upper left corner) is the most noticeable part of the Pegasus constellation. On the left, a chain of stars curved upward adjoins the square, forming together with the square a figure vaguely reminiscent of a ladle with a handle. The stars of the pen, including the upper left star of the square, belong to the constellation Andromeda.

The constellations Pegasus and Andromeda are visible high in the southern sky on October evenings. Drawing: Stellarium

Andromeda and Pegasus are the main and most expressive constellations of mid-autumn. Of course, in the early evening, they are still visible in their place, and closer to night, much brighter winter constellations rise in the east. But in the evenings in October, Pegasus and Andromeda reign in the sky.

In the constellation Andromeda there is Andromeda Nebula, a giant spiral galaxy located 2 million light years from Earth. Many will be surprised, but the Andromeda Nebula can be seen with the naked eye. This is not easy to do in a city, but under good atmospheric conditions the author of these lines was able to observe the galaxy even in a city with a population of half a million people.

How to find the Andromeda Nebula? Start from the top left edge of the Pegasus Square. Follow the handle of the “bucket” to the star Mirakh (β Andromeda). Above it you will see two dim stars, denoted by the Greek letters mu (μ) and nu (ν). The Andromeda nebula is located just above and to the right of ν Andromeda.

The Andromeda nebula is located above the star Mirach, the middle one in Andromeda's arm. In the figure, the nebula is shown as an elongated nebula. Drawing: Stellarium

Look closely at this part of the sky. If you don't notice a faint hazy glow, try looking at the area with your peripheral vision. Shake your head slightly from side to side. If you see the star Andromeda Nu clearly enough, most likely your peripheral vision will “catch” the movement of the faint speck.

Pegasus Square, Andromeda constellation and Andromeda Nebula. The galaxy is located above the star Mira and the stars μ and ν Andromeda. Drawing: Stellarium

Remember that the light coming from the galaxy traveled two million light years. How far is this distance? Do the math for yourself: the speed of light is 300 thousand km/s, and the time it took to fly to Earth is 2 million years... Just think, at the time when this light started to reach Earth, there was no man on our planet yet!

The Andromeda nebula is the most distant object in space visible to the naked eye. Try and see it in mid-October, while the moonlight does not interfere with observations!

The Andromeda nebula is the closest large galaxy to us. Even in amateur photographs she looks amazing. Photo: Julian Wessel

Cold autumn evening... Distant stars tremble and twinkle above the tops of yellowed trees. In the south you can see the Great Summer Triangle - the three brightest stars. But its time passes: closer to midnight, the triangle approaches the horizon, and on the southern slope the place is occupied by a large bucket of the constellations Pegasus and Andromeda.

For more than two thousand years, since the times of Hipparchus and Eratosthenes, the constellation of the autumn sky Andromeda has been flickering brightly among a scattering of distant stars.

Legend of the constellation Andromeda

In a time when magic ruled the world, in the era of the gods of Olympus, King Cepheus ruled in a distant country called Ethiopia. He had a wife, Cassiopeia, and a daughter, Andromeda.

And everything would be fine in the country of King Cepheus if it were not for the boasting of his lovely wife Cassiopeia. Once the king’s wife boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids and nymphs. The sea beauties heard about this. The resentment overflowed, and they complained to the god of the seas, Poseidon. Being his daughters and granddaughters, they understood that he would listen to them and would not leave the terrible insult unpunished.

Then Poseidon became angry and sent a terrible monster to Ethiopia. The Terrible Whale constantly came out of the sea and destroyed the country. Then King Cepheus was saddened, having learned the whole truth from his wife, and went for advice to the oracle of Zeus. He listened to him and advised him to give his daughter Andromeda to the monster - Keith, in order for peace to come in the country. But how could you sacrifice your own daughter? In complete confusion, Cepheus wandered home. After some time, the people learned about the oracle's advice and forced the king to resolve this issue.

Pay

Andromeda, chained to a rock, awaited her death with horror.

But suddenly Perseus suddenly appeared, having learned the whole truth, he began to wait for the monster to fight him.

Happy ending to the story

As in any good mythical legend, good triumphed over evil.

But there were some incidents. Andromeda was betrothed to Finney, brother of Cepheus. He appeared at the wedding of Perseus and Andromeda and demanded the return of the bride. But Perseus was not going to give up the beautiful bride. He took out the head of the Gorgon Medusa and turned Phineus into stone. This is the story of the times of magic and the gods. And we will involuntarily remember her, watching in the sky how brightly Andromeda flickers - the constellation, the legend of which is so beautiful and instructive.

How to find Andromeda in the sky?

After reading an interesting legend, most likely you will want to see Andromeda with your own eyes. It's not difficult to find. The easiest time to spot the constellation is in the fall. Between September and early December, the constellation Andromeda can be seen from early twilight until morning. In the evening, the asterism is in the east, a little closer to midnight - in the south. Closer to morning it shifts to westward. First you will need to find a giant quadrangle - the Pegasus Square.

To the left of the Square you can see a chain of stars of the same luminosity. These are precisely the stars of the Andromeda constellation.

You can find the desired asterism in another way. First, find the constellation Cassiopeia, it looks like the letter M or W, depending on the position of the asterism in the sky. The Andromeda stars are located directly below this “letter”. With the onset of December, the constellation Andromeda shifts to the west. Closer to spring, the asterism is already in the northwest direction. And with the approach of summer, it comes out only at dawn, and it is quite difficult to notice it.

The city lights are fading and the stars are shining

Of course, it’s difficult even for a person with a rich imagination to imagine a girl looking at the “handle” in the sky. However, these three stars are not the entire constellation - Andromeda (photo below) occupies much large area in the sky. On the northern side, the asterism is bordered by the constellations Pegasus and Cassiopeia, on the south by the Triangle and Pisces, and on the west by the Lizard and Pegasus.

However, to see all the stars of the Andromeda constellation, you will need to travel outside the city limits, where there is no night light. Once you get used to the darkness a little, you will be amazed a huge number stars in the sky that are visible naked eye. Take a look at our constellation Andromeda - Alpha Andromeda forms the upper left corner of Pegasus Square - the girl's head. The following objects δ, σ and θ form Andromeda's shoulders, β, μ and ν constellations form her waist. Other objects are γ and M51 Andromeda - her legs. The girl's hands are marked with stars λ on one side and ζ on the other.

You see that the girl’s arms are spread out to the sides. Why? The answer is obvious: she is chained to a rock. If you look closely, the Andromeda constellation really resembles the figure of a girl chained to a rock.

Taking a walk away from the city lights, you saw how the “handle” took on the shape of a girl from an ancient legend.

Some terms in simple language

It may be a little difficult to remember or understand some of the description.

We will explain to you in simple language Some terms and expressions used in the article:

1. Giants are stars much larger than our Sun (which is a yellow dwarf).
2. Temperature in Kelvin is 273 degrees higher than Celsius (0 degrees Celsius translates to 273 degrees Kelvin).
3. A light year is the distance that light travels in one year (for example, light travels from the Sun to Earth in 8 minutes 19 seconds).
4. Often referred to as "spectral class" - scientists determine the temperature of a distant star using a certain spectrum (like a rainbow with different widths of bands of all colors).
5. The stars of constellations (objects) are designated, starting with the brightest, using the Greek alphabet: α, β, γ and so on. They may also have a separate name. For example: Alferats or α Andromeda.

Constellation Andromeda: description of stars

Let's start with the brightest star of our asterism.

Alferaz is the brightest star in the constellation Andromeda, with Arabic translated means “navel of a horse.” From antiquity and the Middle Ages to the 17th century, this star belonged simultaneously to two constellations - Pegasus and Andromeda.

Alferaz is a blue subgiant with a temperature of 13,000 degrees Kelvin, emitting light 200 times more than the Sun. It is located 97 light years from Earth. A study of the spectrum showed that Alferaz is a pair star. It is considered a prominent representative of an amazing class of mercury-manganese stars.

Their atmosphere may contain an excess of europium, gallium, mercury and manganese, and the proportion of all other elements is insignificant. Scientists suggest that main reason The anomalies may be strongly influenced by the radiation and gravity of the star.

β constellation Andromeda - Mirax, a fairly large object, belongs to the group of red giants.

Alamak - γ Andromedae, is the third brightest star in the constellation. This complex system, which consists of four bright components. Alamak is one of the beautiful double stars that can be observed even through a small telescope. Its main yellow star has a bluish companion and is considered a giant of spectral class K3. The object's temperature reaches about 4500 K. Almak's radius is 70 times greater than that of our star.

These are the main characteristics of the three most bright stars in the constellation Andromeda.

So where was the rock that Andromeda was chained to? This question was asked by many geographers of the past. According to Strabo, the rock was located in Iop, near the city of Tel Aviv. The Jewish chronicler Josephus (1st century AD) even claimed that imprints of Andromeda's chains and the remains of a monster could be found on the shore!

As for Ethiopia, it is quite far from Israel. Obviously, this rock was located on the shores of the Red Sea, and Andromeda herself was a black woman. True, according to Herodotus, all the events described took place on the territory of India. Definitely the question remains open. It is quite possible that the legend told about real events, but transformed into a kind of myth that has survived to our time.

M31 "Andromeda Nebula".
11/28/2010, Deepsky 80\560ED telescope, WO 0.8x II gear-corrector, Canon 1000D, ISO 1600, shutter speed 1 minute, 10-15 frames. Mount - EQ5

How to find the famous Andromeda Nebula (M31)? Best time The best time to observe it is in autumn, but you can also try to find it at other times of the year (for example, in the morning in summer). To search, you must first face the northern part of the sky, find the constellation Ursa Major, draw a line from the handle of the “bucket” through the North Star, and on the continuation of this imaginary line you will see an inverted letter M or W - this is the constellation Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia is a fairly bright constellation, so you can easily find it.


Then we turn to the right, to the southeastern side of the sky - we see that under Cassiopeia there are two large constellations - Andromeda and Pegasus. Feature- the so-called “Pegasus Square” - four stars forming a kind of “square”.


We will orient ourselves from it - draw an imaginary line along the stars, first to the left and then up. If you did everything correctly and look at the desired place through binoculars, telescope or a good optical finder - you will see a small light oval cloud. Congratulations, this is the Andromeda Nebula - a huge galaxy with which our Galaxy is approaching (the collision will occur in 3-4 billion years).




In small telescopes it is visible in the same way as in binoculars/spotting scopes, but larger - a large oval spot. Several of its satellites, small galaxies (M32 and M110), also become noticeable. With 20x60 binoculars, it is visible throughout the entire field of view. The visual size of the Andromeda Nebula is about 3...3.5 degrees - 7 times the apparent size of the Moon! In telescopes of larger diameters (from 250 mm or more), dust paths near the center of the galaxy become accessible for observation.
The main key to success in observations is a dark sky and the absence of flare.

In the photographs, the Andromeda Nebula looks much more beautiful than visually, primarily due to the visibility of dust clouds along the center of the galaxy. Basic images of the galaxy can be obtained with even the simplest motorized equatorial mount and a DSLR camera with a kit lens.

Which can be seen in the sky with the naked eye and is the only spiral galaxy (except for our own) that is quite reliably visible in the suburban sky. The best time to observe the Andromeda Nebula is dark and moonless autumn evenings. At this time, the galaxy is high in the sky, where the transparency of the sky is higher than at the horizon, and city light exposure is not too bothersome.

Among all the deep space objects, the Andromeda Nebula is perhaps the brightest and largest object in the autumn sky. How to find this galaxy in the sky in autumn?

There are two classic methods.

Method number 1: starting from the Pegasus Square

If the main star pattern in the summer sky is , then in the fall it is replaced by another asterism - Great Square of Pegasus. (They are often called without the “big” prefix.) The Pegasus Square after sunset is in the southeast, to the left of the Summer Triangle, and towards midnight it is in the southern side of the sky. Find this quadrilateral. (Hint: the stars that make it up are about the same brightness as the stars of the Big Dipper, which is visible in the north at this time.)

Summer Triangle and Pegasus Square in the autumn sky. Drawing: Stellarium

Adjacent to the square on the left a chain of three stars of approximately comparable brilliance. The chain bends upward, making the Pegasus square look like a huge coffee pot. The stars in this chain belong to the Andromeda constellation.

Now pay attention to the middle star in the chain, or rather, to its surroundings: above it you will see two more stars - much dimmer. This is by the way good test - If you can confidently see these stars, then most likely you will be able to see the Andromeda Nebula . If you see two stars with difficulty, then the quality of the sky is not good, and you will have to use binoculars or a telescope to find the Andromeda Galaxy. (There's nothing wrong with that, it's just that not everyone has them!)

So, there is one last step left. The Andromeda nebula is located just above and to the right of the second star, called Andromeda nude.

Pegasus Square, Andromeda constellation and the Andromeda Nebula (circled). Drawing: Stellarium

Method number 2: starting from the constellation Cassiopeia

The constellation Cassiopeia is familiar to many thanks to its characteristic pattern - it looks like the letter M or Latin letter W. This small constellation visible in our sky all year round. In autumn, in the evenings, Cassiopeia can be observed in the eastern part of the sky at an altitude of about 60° above the horizon, and at midnight - at the zenith.

The constellation Andromeda is located under the constellation Cassiopeia. If in the figure W we take the third and fourth stars (counting from left to right), mentally connect them with a line and extend this line three times the distance down (slightly at an angle, as in the figure), then this line will point to the Andromeda Nebula.

The Andromeda Nebula can be found by starting from the stars of Cassiopeia. Drawing: Stellarium

Both search options are equally simple. Perhaps the first method is somewhat more reliable, since it gives the position of the nebula directly next to the star. But you can easily combine two methods - say, find the constellation Andromeda from the constellation Cassiopeia, and the Andromeda Nebula using two stars.

Now a few words about What does a galaxy look like to the naked eye?. On dark sky it will appear as a dim elongated speck the size of half the visible disk of the Moon. You won't be able to discern any details. If the sky transparency is mediocre, the galaxy may not be visible to direct vision or may be very poorly visible. Then use peripheral vision, that is, look slightly away from the place where the Andromeda Nebula is located, and at the same time try to catch its faint glow.

It goes without saying that it is extremely difficult to see the Andromeda Galaxy in the city. Success depends heavily on the quality of the atmosphere and the choice of location. Try to find an area that is protected from street lighting as much as possible. Never watch under the moon! Before observing, give your eyes 10 minutes to adjust to the darkness. During this time, remain in complete darkness. The rest depends on your patience, experience and atmospheric conditions.