It's just a big cotton ball with your eyes, but on a clear night away from the city there is something amazing about seeing that far.

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saw it many a time

Yes.

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That, along with seeing the Mir and Shuttle connect have stuck in my mind. I'll have to see if I can find it again.

I've seen it many a time, from dark sections of a city, the country side, and from atop Mauna Kea.

I never saw it in a city, but far away I've seen it lots.

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It is very hard to see the Andromeda Galaxy from here in New Zealand because it is so low in our northern sky, but yes, I have seen it a few times with my naked eye and many times in binoculars.

About 12 years ago when a nearby resident heard I was interested in astronomy he asked me if I could show him Andromeda. We had to walk only about 50 metres from his house to avoid light pollution and there it was, less than five degrees above the horizon.

Like Andromeda321, I think it is a fascinating galaxy and have many photographs of it. To me, it's a real thrill to see it and realise that it's the most distant thing that can be seen with the naked eye -- that its light has taken 2.2 million years to get here.

Maybe you should do a poll on how many people have seen OmegaCen or 47Tuc with the naked eye!

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As a matter of fact, it is one of my "checks" for sky conditions. If I can see M31, then I know that the atmosphere is fairly transparent. Although my skies are not "middle of nowhere" dark (I wish), being 50 Km east of Austin gives me darker than average skies.

FWIW - I know that the sky is truely dark and clear if I can see M33 with 10x50 binoculars!

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When it comes to Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae, along with the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud, I often play a little game of "When can I NOT see them." The last time I tried it was on a hazy winter night, probably with ice crystrals in the air, and a near full moon. They were still all visible -- the SMC and 47 Tucanae being hardest to see.

M31 is a fairly easy naked eye target if the sky is dark and clear, and the object is well above the horizon, however, I have had trouble trying to show it to non-astronomers.

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that's true, people that have never found it themselves are hard to show just where it is.


it takes a laser pointer or a lot of patience.

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Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

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I finally saw it here the other week when my experimental astronomy class went to our local observatory off campus. It was amazing to finally see it, plus now I know exactly how to star hop to it. Through binoculars it's still pretty amazing!

My point exactly.!!! You've discovered the true enjoyment of astronomy.

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Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

There's usually so much goop in the atmosphere that even on the best of nights at the dark sky site, M31 isn't a naked eye object for me...but down in western Tennessee over Labor Day, it sure was...wow...

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That may be true for some telescopes but not all of them. There are rich-field telescopes that can produce true fields of view of over four degrees and M31 looks very good indeed through them. (My 101mm Tele Vue refractor yields a TFOV of 4.4 degrees with a 35mm Tele Vue Panoptic.) Of course, a truly dark site is required for pleasing results.

However, two of the best views of M31 that I've ever had have been through relatively large apertures, 16 and 18 inches. Although I've seen it through much larger scopes, that aperture range seems to work quite well for detailed examination of M31. The 18 incher, an excellent ATM Dob, was equipped with a Denkmeier binoviewer and produced an incredible image of M31, its dark dust lanes and star cloud (NGC 206), and its companion galaxies M32 and M110.

From a dark site, M31 actually spans more than 4 degrees, or 8 lunar diameters.

http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m031.html

Dave Mitsky

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In my experience, the sky is dark when M33 can be seen naked-eye. This corresponds to only a Class 3 sky on the Bortle LP scale. It's visible in 5.5 magnitude skies (Class 6) with a binocular.

http://www.novac.com/lp/def.php

Dave Mitsky

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Is it possible to see M33 nacked eye- I've heard of it...

Is it further though...

I havn't seen it nacked eye yet... too low... I'll be sure too this cristmas though

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