The Andromeda (M31) Galaxy just how far away is it ?

Recently poormanUK reported finding the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).  A oval misty patch in the NW sky which from poormanUK's mission control near Horsham England is not as reported by many books visible to the naked eye.  This is due to light pollution from Horsham and nearby Crawley and Gatwick airport.

This image is not from my telescope.

Finding Andromeda was elusive even with the 8 inch Dobsonian and confirming it with help from my trusty Android  and Google Sky Map put a smile on my face.  So it's not easy in this location but when you start to look into how far this is away it becomes understandable.  This oval misty patch is around 2.5 million light-years away and also happens to be one of the furthest objects that can  be seen with the naked eyes.  Side note, I have seen Andromeda with my high power binoculars from this location.

As I am fairly new to Astronomy a 'Light Year' does not mean much to me and I start thinking about 'Toy Story' and things like that.  We non-scientists need something else to comprehend these distances. So consider this, if I was flying a jet at 600 mph it would take approximately 3 trillion years to get there.  There is also another way to consider when  poormanUK was looking at Andromeda  he was  effectively looking back in time 2.5 million years. This is simply because it took that amount of time for light to travel from Andromeda and reach my telescope.  So who says were not time travellers.  To me this is a much a better way of thinking how staggeringly far Andromeda is away from us.

Now we have sorted out the distance lets consider what Andromeda is, it is estimated that Andromeda is made up of over one trillion stars or put another way one trillion objects like our own Sun. That in turn means that these Suns could have structure similar to our Solar System and you got it potentially life. Don't think we will prove that tomorrow though.  Another interesting point about Andromeda is that if our eyes could take in the full Andromeda Galaxy it would be six times the size of our full moon.

Interesting point the first photographs of Andromeda were taken in 1887 by Isaac Roberts here in Sussex, England.  Guess light pollution wasn't as bad back then.
Here is his picture. Not bad for over 100 years ago!  Well done Isaac Result!

The View Through poormanUK's Telescope

Latest Astronomy Diary & History in the sky

Friday 4th of March 2011 - Clear skies so the children watched the ISS and Discovey and the Scope came out.  Orion Nebula showed great detail and then using my Google Android App I went in search of Andromeda.   A fuzzy patch told me I had found the Galaxy.  My son got his first look at another Galaxy.

Sunday 5th of March 2011 - Early evening cloudy but still got a glimpse of the ISS and Discovery.  Late evening was very clear but too late to get the scope out.

Monday 7th March 2011 - Observed history in the making as Discovery now undocked from the ISS started its returning orbits. The ISS and Discovery now separated passed clearly across the skies south of Horsham they looked like two shiny stars following each other.  Old enough too remember the start of the Space Shuttle programme it was sad to see Discovery pass over for the last time as it moves into the pages of Space history. 
The choice of the name "Discovery" carried on a tradition drawn from some historic, Earth-bound exploring ships of the past.  Two British Royal Geographical Society ships have carried the name "Discovery" as they sailed on expeditions to the North Pole and the Antarctic. Most people seeing the ISS and the Space Shuttle would have dismissed them as planes.  Things change but the Shuttle programme was my generation and its sad to see it go.

Great Astronomy Apps for Android Phones

Okay Folks,

So the Poorman got a birthday present a HTC wildfire android phone.  I immediately started looking for free Astronomy Apps....keeping in step with the Poorman theme.  Oh before I start how much was the phone? £150 out the door non-contract pay as you go from "Phones 4 U".  So expensive by Poorman standards but it does other things besides Astronomy.

Back to those free Apps.  The no brainer download was "Google Sky" fits the budget it's free. Point your phone at the sky, and Google Sky Map will show the stars, planets, constellations, and more to help you identify the celestial objects in view. You can also browse the skies in manual mode. Murphy's law cloudy first night after download next night though it was great.  Google Sky is fantastic point it at the heavens and it tells you what you are looking at simple as that. Crafty trick hold it in front of the telescope and move scope and phone until phone shows what you want to see and hey presto a very crude go to. I found Andromeda through the light pollution very quickly this way.

As my Dobsonian comes with no frills not go-to etc. My next job was to find such an App.  and I think I have found one it's in Beta mode but looks very promising.  The App is called Skeye.   The handheld-mode is similar to Google SkyMap. However, when switched to indirect-mode it doubles as a PUSHTO guide for telescopes. The PUSHTO system uses the phone's sensors alone. All you need to do is strap the phone onto the telescope. So I am going to make a support to protect the phone and mount that on my Dobsonian and see if this works.  If it does then finding stars will become a whole lot easier than with Google Sky.

Will post an update soon.  Also I am building a Webcam mount out of bits and pieces so will be updating that here if successful.

 This video was taken of Saturn using a point and shoot held at the Dobsonian's eyepiece.

Astronomy Diary Jan 31st 19:45 to 21:45

A good cloudless night so tonight was an experiment get the scope out and try the new Google Sky App on the Android Phone.  Temp was at freezing and I was surprised how well my new Smartphone did in the cold.  Jupiter looked great tonight and you could clearly see the bands of clouds that make up this gas giant.

(All photos in this Blog section courtesy of NASA public domain)

The Google Sky app is fantastic and really supports a manual Dobsonian to find things almost like a go to scope.  So armed with the Google Sky App it was quite simple to align the scope on objects that were hard to find under light polluted skies. Andromeda  was disappointing but The Orion Nebulae was the best I have seen it through the scope this is by far my favourite spot.  With the sky you can clearly see the clouds that make up the nebula.

Well its not as stunning as this shot of the Nebula. Taken by Hubble in 2006.  But for an 8 inch Dobsonian it is a great thing to show the curious passer by to get that "Wow" factor.

Then it was on to M45 the Pleiades star cluster. Easy to see with the eye and the scope is a bit too big to capture all the stars nevertheless a nice site to round off an evenings viewing.  Then it was pack the scope up and head in doors for tea and warm up and update this Blog.  Until next time Clear Skies!

Astronomy -5:30 am Observations 30th Jan

Daughter woke us up with bad dream at 05:30.  I looked out and it was the perfect starry night.  Low light pollution and not windy...so minimal wind-chill.  Temp was around freezing or slightly below. Got the Dobsonian together really fast and went out. Saturn was the best to date you could make out the shadows of the rings on the planet.  It was too late for deep sky work as dawn was breaking an earlier start would have provided spectacular views.  However I did not go to bed until 01:30 hoping for early clear skies which never came.

I stopped looking at Saturn and when I pulled back the ISS was gliding silently overhead too fast to get the scope on and eyepieces changed. Observing with the eye revealed  a little detail you could just start to tell the shape.  Very bright and very cool to see it gliding across the sky.  This was not the only bright object a view East revealed the moon and Venus very bright and directly above the moon. unfortunately viewing East is blocked by the house so getting the scope to look here is not practical.
Here are some unprocessed shots taken this morning.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest:

Read more about Saturn  l  Saturn facts, pictures and information. by nineplanets.org

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest:

Read more about Saturn  l  Saturn facts, pictures and information. by nineplanets.org

Saturn is the second largest planet and is about 170,000,000 miles away from Earth. So not a bad picture considering the distance.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest:

Read more about Saturn  l  Saturn facts, pictures and information. by nineplanets.org