You.

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

And welcome to Almost Heavens.

Here in West Virginia, we're 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 to.

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 one of our nearest galactic neighbors.

Triangulum.

Triangulum is quite a bi smaller than the Milky Way, less than half the physical size, and much less massive.

And it looks quite different to spiral.

Galaxies come in different types, and Triangulu has some noticeable differences from our Milky Way.

Triangulum has no central bar, its core is rounded instead, and its spiral arms are much more loosely wound.

This gives Triangulum a slightly chaotic look, and it also makes the galaxy relatively faint overall.

All of this means that viewing Triangulum can be a bit difficult.

First, you have to find i without any particularly bright or distinctive constellations nearby.

This is a little tricky, but if Orion is up then you can use it as a guide.

Find Beetlejuice, the bright orange star in Orion's right shoulder, then follow it toward Orion's left side.

Go past the left shoulder.

Bellatrix, and look for another bright orange star.

This is Aldebaran.

Keep going and you should spot the Pleiades, which looks like a teeny tiny Big Dipper.

Imagine a straight lin from Beetlejuice to the Pleiades and keep going in that direction about the same distance.

The Pleiades is about halfway between Beetlejuice and Triangulum.

Triangulum is a faint object, but it's also a large one.

You're not looking for a star.

You're looking for a fuzzy cloud a little over twice the size of the full moon.

Unfortunately, Triangulum is so faint that unless you're in very dark skies, you're unlikely to see it with just your eyes.

Even with magnification, you often need very good conditions to see Triangulum as more than a fuzz patch of slightly brighter sky.

Still, if you want a challenge, this is a beautiful galaxy and a great target.

Thank you for joining.

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Until next time.