The fraud that is M31!

[TheCrazedLog]

Comrades! Friends! Countrymen! We have been deceived! (how do I spell that... where's the spell checker... grr there is none... oh well I just guess I'll have to learn how to spell).

The fraud that is M31 has been exposed! We no longer live in darkness, but in the blinding light of truth!

Last night, I extensively planned my operation with exhausting detail(1), brought state of the art equipment(2) to the best location(3), found the right piece of sky using exhaustive techniques(4) and proved, beyond a doubt, that M31 DOES NOT EXIST!

WE HAVE BEEN DECEIVED! NO LONGER!

(1) Er... bout here should be good.
(2) 10x50 binocs that need a re-threading, cleaning, and hell I need a new pair of them.
(3) On top of a windy hill, under two street lights in the middle of the northern suburbs of Sydney
(4) Probably the only truthful bit here: A grid search after finding some pointer stars :D

*ahem*

I figured I could put a bit of a more interesting spin on my unmitigated failure :D. Funny... M31 is mag 3.5 right? I should have been able to find it, considering I was seeing starts of that magnitude and less no worries.
What gives?

Ta

Anthony

[Ric]

Hi Anthony, It might have been the blinding light of two streetlights that did it. :D

Hope you have better luck next time. :thumbsup:


Cheers

[erick]

That would be news to the Andromedeans - that their home galaxy has vanished!

Possible explanations:-

1) You were looking in the wrong place
2) You were looking at the wrong time (too low down?)
3) There was poor transparency with cloud, dust, smoke cover that you might not have realised was there.
4) Sky was too bright with light pollution and moonlight.
5) Your eyes were not sufficiently dark adapted.

Work on getting 1) and 2) right - M31 is a very easy target. It's at highest elevation around 10pm at the moment. Extend a line from Mirach (Beta Andromedae) through Mu Andromedae for the same distance and you are there.

With current Moon plus Sydney sky glow, I think you will have to work hard to pick up Andromeda, even with 10x50 binoculars and particularly if your eyes aren't dark adapted (try to get those street lights at your back and don't look at any lights for 20 min before you try to see it).

With less light pollution (at a location I visit some 50km from outskirts of Sydney) and dark adapted eyes, I have no trouble picking up M31 with 12x60 binoculars, even under full Moon!

Good luck!

ps, Go looking for NGC 253 in Sculptor - I think that is more impressive and still an easy binocular target.

[TheCrazedLog]

I'm pretty sure I was looking in the right spot: I did my usual star jumping trick and then did a grid search. However, I really didn't give myself a lot of chance of finding it. I'll have to find a dark spot with a north aspect to it...

[[1ponders]]

Well Anthony I think I've solved your problem.

I went hunting the same quarry last night with a group of beginner astronomers. I knowd where it was, I had the time right, it was right at the meridian, plenty of clearance from trees and buildings, no streetlights in the direction. Couldn't go wrong you'd think. It took me damn well nearly 5 minutes to find! I was really starting to feel the fool not being able to show this group what I had promised them as an awe inspiring site.

What happened???? THAT DAMN MOON!!!! It was so bright with so much moisture in the air that M31 just looked like a smudge on the ol' 10x50s. It was so bad that earlier on I was hard pressed to find 47 Tuc.

My suggestions to you then would be get away from those street lights, wait two weeks, and then head to Qld for the Barambah Dark Sky camp, when you should arrive just in time if you have cruised up stopping to surf at all the best spots. M31 will be much higher in the sky at Barambah. ;)

[programmer]

If you have Internet Explorer, you will have a spell check button up the top-right there :)

Edit: oh and about M31, I got nothin'. I live in Melbourne.

[Outbackmanyep]

M31 is a naked eye object from my home, some people imagine it to be just like the photo...but alas it is not so.....until you take a photo! It'll be there but it will be fuzzy and greyish with a strong central condensation!

Cheers!

[leon]

Actually get the latest update of Mozilla Firefox, it's free and has a built in spell checker.

leon

[goober]

I'm only about 10km from you, and I've seen M31 in binoculars and scope from my back yard. It's low, it looks like a difuse, hazy blob, but it's M31 :)