# I think I saw a Galaxy. Can anyone ID it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 12, 2004, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-saw-a-galaxy-can-anyone-id-it/249907 "2004-06-12T00:37:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![legion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/838e76/32.png) [@legion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legion)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-saw-a-galaxy-can-anyone-id-it/249907/1 "2004-06-12T00:37:47Z")
I first spotted it at about 01:00 Monday morning, while I was in San Stefinos, Corfu. I was looking east, maybe a touch north of east, and only using a pair of 8X25 bino’s and it looked like a small, grey smudge, about the size of my little fingernail and it was really on the very edge of visibility. In fact I could make it out better with my peripheral vision rather than looking directly at it. It never got more than a couple of inches above the horizon but it was there when I looked the next two nights as well. Was it a Galaxy? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-saw-a-galaxy-can-anyone-id-it/249907/2 "2004-06-12T00:43:22Z")
Most likely the Andromeda galaxy. It’s the farthest thing you can see with your naked eye. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-saw-a-galaxy-can-anyone-id-it/249907/3 "2004-06-12T00:53:34Z")
Not Andromeda, that’s too high in the sky. Not comets Neat or Linear either. The are several naked-eye visible globular clusters in the constellations Ophiuchus and Sagittarius. I think they’d be in about the part of the sky you were looking at. Maybe [M10](http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m010.html) ? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-saw-a-galaxy-can-anyone-id-it/249907/4 "2004-06-12T01:27:05Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Not Andromeda, that’s too high in the sky. No, it probably was Andromeda. The OP was on Corfu, near Greece. Andromeda would be just above the horizon in the northeast at about 1 AM this time of year. M10 would be way up in the sky in the south. My guess is definitely Andromeda - fits the description perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-saw-a-galaxy-can-anyone-id-it/249907/5 "2004-06-12T01:36:20Z")
It’s probably either M31 (Andromeda) or M33, but I think your best bet is to try an [interactive star chart](http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/). M31 is farther north than M33. Descriptions of these galaxies: **M31** _Andromeda Galaxy_ Type: Spiral Galaxy Constellation: Andromeda Mag: 3.4 Dimensions: 3° x 1° **M33** _Triangulum Galaxy_ or _Pinwheel Galaxy_ Type: Spiral Galaxy Constellation: Triangulum Mag: 5.7 [this is about the limit of naked-eye visibility, depending on how good your eyes are, light pollution, and other factors] Dimensions: 71’ x 42’ [arc-minutes] Source: Stephen James O’Meara, _Deep-Sky Companions: The Messier Objects_, © 1998, pp. 110, 115 ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-saw-a-galaxy-can-anyone-id-it/249907/6 "2004-06-12T01:40:22Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > No, it probably was Andromeda. Went and checked my chart for longitude 19, latitude 39 (corfu) at 1 AM. If I did _that_ right, Andromeda is in the northeast, but it’s 25 degrees above the horizon; more than a “couple of inches” unless there are hills involved. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-saw-a-galaxy-can-anyone-id-it/249907/7 "2004-06-12T11:23:26Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Went and checked my chart for longitude 19, latitude 39 (corfu) at 1 AM. If I did _that_ right, Andromeda is in the northeast, but it’s 25 degrees above the horizon; more than a “couple of inches” unless there are hills involved. If you can see anything at all above the horizon, it is more than a couple of inches above it, if you take the phrase literally. In my experience, when non-savvy sky observers say an “inch” they mean about ten degrees. It’s an interesting perceptual concept. It means that they perceive the dome to be six inches away–at the end of the binoculars, maybe? So, raising the binoculars an inch would raise the view ten degrees.