This.

Hi, I'm Shannon Silverman, astrophysicist at the Clay center.

And welcome to Almost Heavens.

Here in West Virginia, we are just about halfway between the North Pole and the equator.

That means we are in the perfect spot to view everything the northern skies have to offer.

And even a little of the southern skies, too.

During the fall, we're able to see many of summer's constellations and objects, as well as many of winters.

However, fall isn't just a combination of summer and winter objects.

It's also the perfect time to look for a few particularly interesting objects.

One of those objects is not a constellation or a star, but a galaxy.

Galaxies are huge collections of stars held together by gravity, and they come in many shapes and sizes.

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a spiral galaxy, and so is our nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda.

Andromeda is much like a sister galaxy to the Milky Way, in that these two galaxies are very similar in mass and structure.

Though Andromeda is larger, estimates still vary, but it could be up to twice the physical size of the Milky Way.

It likely contains more stars as well.

Andromeda can be best seen in the fall near the constellatio that it's named for, Andromeda.

This can be a difficult constellation to pick out, so it's easier to look for th distinct W shape of Cassiopeia and then below the for an orange star called Mirach Andromeda is about two thirds of the way from Cassiopeia to Mirach Closer to the right side of the W. If it were right side up.

There's also a really tricky thing about viewing the Andromeda galaxy that isn't usually a problem with stuff in the night sky.

Andromeda is big.

Really big.

Imagine the full moon.

Then imagine something twice the size.

That's just the width of the galaxy.

Andromeda is shaped like an extended oval and is six times as long as the full moon.

The core of Andromeda is much brighter than the spiral arms, so it's the easiest thing to look for.

You can see the core eve with moderate light pollution, but since we're used to lookin for points of light like stars, it can be hard to get the han of looking for a larger object.

It'll appear much like a large fuzzy cloud about the size of the moon.

This is just the core, bu the spiral arms extend further.

Magnification will reveal them but only under good conditions.

Andromeda is also not alone.

Large galaxies often have smaller galaxies orbiting them like moons.

Andromeda has several, but two of the larges and brightest are M32 and M1 ten and 110 is larger and looks like a cloud, while M32 is brighter but looks much like a fuzzy star.

They're both challenges to see, but once you've mastered Andromeda, why not give them a try?

Thank you for joining.

Keep an eye out for more almost heavens on our channel and our socials.

Until next time.