Messier 31 (Andromeda Galaxy) - Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda
Messier 31 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Andromeda constellation. Messier 31 is situated north of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the northern hemisphere. Given its visual magnitude of 3.44, Messier 31 is visible to the naked eye under a clear and dark sky, or with the help of a small binocular.
The image below is a photograph of Messier 31 from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2 - see the credits section) taken in the red channel. The area of sky represented in the image is 5.9277x5.9277 degrees (355.66x355.66 arcmins).
Celestial Coordinates
Apparent
J2000
Finder Chart
The simplified sky charts below show the position of Messier 31 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.
Photometric Information
The following table lists the magnitude of Messier 31 in different bands of the electomagnetic spectrum (when available), from the B band (445nm wavelength, corresponding to the Blue color), to the V band ( 551nm wavelength, corresponding to Green/Yellow color), to the J, H, K bands (corresponding to 1220nm, 1630nm, 2190nm wavelengths respectively, which are colors not visible to the human eye).
For more information about photometry in astronomy, check the photometric system article on Wikipedia.
The surface brightess reported below is an indication of the brightness per unit of angular area of Messier 31.
Apparent Size
The following table reports Messier 31 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of Messier 31 is a visual representation of it.Morphological Classification
Messier 31 (Andromeda Galaxy) - Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda is classified as Spiral (SAb) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of Messier 31 (Andromeda Galaxy) - Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.
Credits for the background image: Antonio Ciccolella / M. De Leo / CC BY
Rise and Set Times
Location: Greenwich, UK
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London
Messier 31 (Andromeda Galaxy) - Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda is circumpolar and transits at 23:47 UTC (altitude: 79.9°)