It is observed in the skies of Egypt and the Arab world after sunset and the beginning of the night in early November 2023, in the absence of the moon at the beginning of the night. The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way Galaxy.
The Astronomical Society in Jeddah revealed in a report that to monitor the Andromeda Galaxy, it is preferable to use a group of Cassiopeia stars, “The Cassiopeia,” which resemble the letters W or M depending on their position in the dome of the sky. Cassiopeia is observed toward the northeastern horizon at the beginning of the night and is located high toward the north as the evening progresses. Its shape is easy to recognize.
To see “Andromeda,” the observation must be from a dark location away from city lights, and you will notice that one half of the letter W is narrower than the other half. This part is the “arrow” in the sky that points to that galaxy.
The Andromeda Galaxy can be searched for with the naked eye and in a dark sky, and you will see it as ancient stargazers did before the days of star maps and optical monitoring devices, where the galaxy appears as a blurry smudge in the night sky.
After finding it with the naked eye, it is preferable to look at it using binoculars or a telescope. The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million light-years away, and like our Milky Way Galaxy, this large spiral galaxy is teeming with hundreds of billions of stars.
