M31 Revisited

This time, we will be revisiting one of the “old friends”, the Andromeda galaxy. This time of the year, it's almost directly overhead. But, so are a LOT of clouds. This has been a terrible year for astronomy so far :).

M31

 

This is the “original” image taken in 2015. (That appears to have been a good year; at least not as cloudy.) To get oriented, North is at the top of the picture and East on the left side. If you were looking due South at the sky, this would be the correct orientation. The big galaxy is M31. The smaller “blob” in the lower left corner is another galaxy, M32. M32 is a satellite galaxy of M31 (also implying that it is gravitationally bound to it like our moon is to earth).

M31 with globular cluster marked.

Notice this this is the same image with 10 small white circles. Those circles, as it turns out, are circling globular clusters located in M31. You will need to magnify the image to be able to see them, but they are there. It is not new knowledge that globular clusters are around other galaxies. What is new for me is that I imaged them! And didn't even know it! I would expect the Hubble telescope to be able to do this, but not me. I found an article on an astronomy web site about seeing these visually, which would take a BIG scope, but one that many amateurs might own. My eyes aren't good enough to see them even with a big scope, so I decided to check my images. And there they are. I have another image of, basically, the “top” half of M31 (assuming this is the bottom half), and I found another 15 or so in that image.

Of course, we have globular clusters around our own galaxy. Here is of the “gems”,M13, seen below. 

M13 in Hercules

 

M13 is in the constellation of Hercules and is usually a summer constellation. Why usually? It's important to realize that the constellations can be visible a fairly large portion on the year, depending how late you want to be up at night. For instance, Hercules can be seen at 6 AM late November through May. However, most people don't do their observing in the early morning, but after supper and before midnight. Therefore, it is more commonly seen around 10 PM May through November. All this assumes you have very good horizons. Another way to say all this is that Hercules is above the horizon when it is dark enough to see it during those times just mentioned (basically all year, depending on where you live).