Viewing Andromeda

[mm31]

Hey all you experienced astronomers out there I recently began using a telescope, its my grandpas 8" he gave to me. Ive been using it for a few months and have been doing alot of research. I was wondering what time of year is it easiest to view Andromeda from the Midwestern region of the U.S. So far I've heard July

 

[tfwthom]

Agree<br /><br />In the fall it should be out of the muck so you can get some good views. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>

 

[doubletruncation]

Keep in mind that when you do see andromeda with an 8-inch telescope, it's not going to look like much through an eyepiece (a fuzzy oval) even from a very dark site. M81/M82 is a pair of galaxies that can be quite nice through an amateur telescope - again two faint fuzzy elliptical patches of light, but if you have a wide enough field of view you can see both at once which is kind of neat, they're in Ursa Major and would be best seen this time of year in the evening. I know a lot of people have strong opinions on this, but I personally think that with an 8" scope things like star clusters and double stars are really a lot more interesting to look at than galaxies. M13 and M5 are a couple of striking globular clusters that will be rising in the evening this time of year. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nevers]

What...!!! (Just use your lowest power eye-piece - in dark skies it will look great! Or better yet, binoculars.)