So we’re out in a park last night with the scope (6 inch dobsonian) and we finally found Andromeda. It was nice and dark out, and we found it first as a “smudge” in the viewfinder, but then we looked through the eyepiece, and it was an even bigger smudge!
No real detail to be discerned, just an oval “cloud” sort of, but still, cool!
Time to go for the 10" scope now
Muaahahaha!
Oh yeah, and the Northern lights were out last night too.
Hey, congrats!
A 10" won’t give much more detail unless you have a very dark site. I like using binocs the best on it, frankly, The scope of it is more obvious… and can be overwhelming when you think abouit how far away it is…
A 10" will net you M32 and NGC 205, though, which are pretty neat.
Congrats, Stupendous man! Now that you know what it looks like, try to see if you can spot it with your naked eye. Believe it or not, it’s actually easy to spot under truly dark skies, but alas!, light pollution is making those harder to find every day. But I can usually spot it naked eye under dark suburban (mag 3.5-4) skies with out TOO much difficulty.
Now you’ve got to look for M81 and M82 (a paired set of galaxies close enough that you can see both in the same field of view with a low-power eyepiece) and M54 (the Whirlpool Galaxy).
Have fun with your dob - I’m still dreaming of the day when I’ll finally have my own yard to observe in, and room for a decent sized scope…
Last night I finally saw Andromeda naked-eye for the first time in my life. It was at a gathering of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club in rural Fauquier County.
After we’d gotten our thrills from the unexpected aurora borealis display, we looked east and were shown how to spot M31. I was able, just barely, to make it out naked-eye. It was at the very threshold of visibility for me: now I saw it, now I didn’t. I strained my eyes trying to keep it in view. Having the city lights of the whole Washington DC metropolitan area just behind the eastern horizon didn’t help much. Then we looked at it through a telescope.
M31 is the farthest thing anyone can see with the naked eye. We were looking at light that was 2 million years old.
Last night I also saw Alcor naked-eye for the first time too! It’s the dim little companion of Mizar in the Big Dipper handle. It was once used as a test of sharp eyesight, or of clear skies. Last night’s sky was totally clear. Woo-hoo!
Andromeda? So, what channel was it on?
Not entirely true - there are a few documented reports of people seeing M33 naked-eye (needless to say, those folks have exceptional eyesight, AND they were under pristine skies). If I ever make it out the the Nebraska Star Party I’m going to see if I can spot it, although I don’t hold out much hope, as my “exceptional eyesight” is on the “exceptionally bad” side of the curve!
M31 is certainly the most distant object that can be readily seen by average people under most conditions - no argument there!
Oops. Bad Astronomy alert! M51 is the Whirlpool Galaxy. 
I have heard reports of people seeing M81/82 naked eye at the Nebraska Star Party. I’m not sure I believe it.
Also, I have heard that the distance to M31 was recalibrated after the Hipparcos satellite went up, and it’s now 2.9 million light years, but I cannot seem to confirm that.
Well, I still wanna get a bigger scope. Then I can take it into Algonquin park, one of Canada’s best viewing areas. Perfectly dark as you can imagine
If we weren’t so exhausted from canoeing/portaging last year for 8 hours per day for 5 days, I might have been able to stay awake long enough to actually enjoy the night sky…
Anyway, Gatineau park is pretty dark, and the moon was below the horizon. I “calibrated” the scope by using the Pleides as a reference point, and writing down the elevation and rotation points for various times. Then, I also had Andromeda’s coordinates written down for various times as well. FInally spotted it at about 23:30
Cool Science is fun!