But we still can’t see individual stars within this galaxy – not with the eye alone. And, indeed, this haze represents the light of the Andromeda galaxy’s billions of stars.
#Look towards the stars and not Patch
This galaxy appears as a hazy patch in our night sky, about as wide in diameter as a full moon. It is possible to see the Andromeda galaxy with the eye alone, from Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. It’s a colorful Perseid meteor and the Andromeda galaxy. Anthony Lynch Photography provided this beauty of photo in August, 2015. Order today from the EarthSky store View larger. All of the stars we see with the eye alone belong to our Milky Way galaxy.ĮarthSky astronomy kits are perfect for beginners. So – if we’re looking in a dark sky – when we look toward the galactic disk, we see the starry band of the Milky Way.Īnd when we look up or down – away from the flat disk of the galaxy – we’re also seeing Milky Way stars.
![look towards the stars and not look towards the stars and not](https://quotefancy.com/media/wallpaper/1600x900/206578-Stephen-Hawking-Quote-One-remember-to-look-up-at-the-stars-and-not.jpg)
Our galaxy is about 100,000 light-years in a diameter, but it’s relatively flat, only about 10,000 light-years thick. This is the edgewise view into our own Milky Way galaxy.
![look towards the stars and not look towards the stars and not](https://strangenotions.com/wp-content/uploads/SpaceLooking.jpg)
So what are we seeing when we look up? The image at the top of this post shows a hazy band in the sky. More about the Andromeda galaxy at the bottom of this post.įrom the Southern Hemisphere, it’s possible to see two dwarf galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. From the Northern Hemisphere, the only galaxy outside our Milky Way that’s easily visible to the eye is the great galaxy in the constellation Andromeda, also known as M31. The answer is no – unless you count seeing the combined light of many billions of stars. Read more about this image.Īre there any stars outside our own galaxy that we can see with just the eye? Photo at top of post by Jeff Dai in Tibet.