How to find Andromeda
When to look
October, November, December evenings
Face east, then high overhead
A chain of stars running north-east from Alpheratz, the Great Square's top corner. From Mirach, the second bright star along, two fainter stars point the way to the Andromeda Galaxy. Autumn and early winter evenings, October to December: high in the east, then overhead. The drawing below is made from the real positions of its 6 stars, as the sky looks when you face it, with bigger dots for brighter stars. No telescope needed.
Andromeda starts at one corner of the Great Square. On a dark night, you can see a faint fuzzy spot near it. That spot is a whole galaxy, full of stars!
Andromeda is a chain of stars running north-east from the Great Square. From Mirach, follow two faint stars up towards Cassiopeia and look just beyond them for a small misty oval. It is the Andromeda Galaxy, the farthest thing most people can see with bare eyes.
The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million light-years away, a spiral of about a trillion stars, like our own Milky Way. The light reaching your eyes tonight left it long before the first modern humans walked on Earth. Almach, at the end of the chain, is an orange and blue double star in a small telescope.
The stars in it
Alpheratz, Delta, Mirach, Almach, Mu, Nu. The brightest is Alpheratz.
How to find it
- Go out after dark with a grown-up, and give your eyes ten minutes away from screens.
- Face east, then high overhead and look for: a chain of stars running north-east from Alpheratz, the Great Square's top corner. From Mirach, the second bright star along, two fainter stars point the way to the Andromeda Galaxy.
- Hold up this page's drawing or the printed card and match the shape to the sky. If the sky is clear.
More star patterns
“Star patterns turn through the night, so the shape may be tipped on its side. Turn your head, not the sky.”