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 
*ahem*
I figured I could put a bit of a more interesting spin on my unmitigated failure
. 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