Andromeda

As I said in my last post, that night backpacking was a break through. Despite the confusion over Hercules I felt like I had finally connected things. However, it wasn't until today I finally solved the full Hercules riddle.

For our anniversary Carolina, my wife, bought me a small telescope. This encouraged me to spend more time looking at the stars. I learned more about the stars and where they were. I tried to figure out Hercules a couple of times and thought I had to some degree. I still had a lot of trouble finding less visible objects, but I was learning.

A few weeks ago Google add Google Sky to their Google Earth. It's pretty neat and gives a lot of info and ways to view the sky. It has helped me find stuff. I went out to see the lunar eclipse last week and Google Sky helped me find stars at the same time. I learned about the winter triangle and hexagon (yes, it's summer, but the eclipse was in the early morning so Orion and the winter stars were in the eastern sky). This was exciting because I tied even more of the sky together.

Last night I went out to find the Andromeda galaxy using my binoculars. I was in my backyard (not ideal, but at least it was clear, we are at 2400ft and there's not too much city light). I had tried a little before, maybe seeing it once, but not really sure. I was struggling, even looking at the wrong corner of Pegasus. Finally I found it! I started at Alpha Andromedae (Alperaz), which is also one corner of Pegasus. Then I found Delta and Epsilon And. (with much help from Google Sky) and onto Mirach (Beta And.). There it is a right turn to Mu then Nu And. and the galaxy is next to Nu And. Here is a chart (although Nu is missing in this chart).



I was able to repeat several times and this morning I repeated with Andromea in the West. This was very exciting for me because I have not found something like this before. I know it's not much, but it doesn't always take much to get me excited.

While I was out last night I looked for Hercules again. I found it -- also exciting. From my searching I noticed the Google Hercules lines were different than the Sky and Telescope chart I had been using. That's what finally helped me figure my Hercules confusion that I describe in my previous blog.

As a bonus, this morning I also found the Great Orion Nebula through binoculars. The fun never stops!