Wednesday 1 July 2009


Heres another, loads more to go, i've got a load of catching up to do - Better do it nor before I get my observatory dome up, but more on that later!
This is M31 The Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest galaxy to us at a distance of around 3 and a half minnion light years - so the light we are looking at from it now is from around the time when a certain plains ape started walking upright and bashing antelope over the head with a thigh bone!
There are two companion galaxies- the one nearest M31 being M32 and the further away (toward the bottom of the image) M101 (M standing for Messier - Charles Messier was a French comet hunter and put together a catalogue of stuff that could be mistaken for comets - perversely, while he did discover comets, he's rather better known for the catalogue)

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