How Our Sky Would Look If Andromeda was Brighter

I believe Andromeda is the closest galaxy to us, so it comes as no surprise that you may be able to see it.

On top of that, it has been speculated that our galaxy and Andromeda will eventually come together to form one galaxy. This won't be for something like 4 billion years, but in the meantime, Andromeda will start looking larger and larger in the future. If humans are still around, I'm sure it would be quite the sight to see. And it probably won't be all that fun also.

Honcho
I believe Andromeda is the closest galaxy to us, so it comes as no surprise that you may be able to see it.

It's actually the third or fourth nearest to us, I believe, but is by far the largest, hence the large space it would take up in the sky if it were brighter.

Thanks for sharing, OP!!!! Simply amazing!

Since there was really no light pollution back then which would have made the Andromeda Galaxy much brighter, I wonder if it could be the famed "Winged Disk" that the Ancient People saw?

reply to post by wmd_2008


My kingdom for a large chunk of isolated land in the middle of nowhere with no light pollution, some lemonade and that view.

Awesome.

reply to post by wmd_2008


If we could see things like this in the sky with the naked eye, I think I'd be outside sleeping under the stars as much as possible. Great image btw. I've always been interested in astrophotography, but the really good lenses are soooo expensive that it's pretty much a pipe dream at this point. Guess I'll have to stick to portraits and landscapes until I win the lottery

reply to post by wmd_2008


im pretty sure the second picture is not only brighter, but employs the usage of multiple filters to produce the image, galaxies are probably far less spectacular to the naked eye than we think, thanks to all those spiffy NASA images.

edit:by naked eye, i mean the light we can see without special filters and whatnot.

Inconceivable
Thanks for sharing, OP!!!! Simply amazing!

Since there was really no light pollution back then which would have made the Andromeda Galaxy much brighter, I wonder if it could be the famed "Winged Disk" that the Ancient People saw?

Well my first picture was taken at a Dark Sky Park which has a darkness rating almost the same as a photographers darkroom anyone living in/near the location has the lighting they use controlled and Andromeda looks like a fuzzy blob to the eye better through binoculars but can look spectacular even with a short telephoto lens on a DSLR with a few pictures stacked together in photoshop.

Which I hope to do some time soon depending on weather etc.

8fl0z
reply to post by wmd_2008

 

im pretty sure the second picture is not only brighter, but employs the usage of multiple filters to produce the image, galaxies are probably far less spectacular to the naked eye than we think, thanks to all those spiffy NASA images.

edit:by naked eye, i mean the light we can see without special filters and whatnot.

edit on 26-3-2014 by 8fl0z because: (no reason given)

Did you read the title the whole point of the thread was to show that if it was bright enough to see with the NAKED eye that was the size it would look in the sky that was the actual point ie was trying to get across the size!

U4ea82
reply to post by wmd_2008

 

If we could see things like this in the sky with the naked eye, I think I'd be outside sleeping under the stars as much as possible. Great image btw. I've always been interested in astrophotography, but the really good lenses are soooo expensive that it's pretty much a pipe dream at this point. Guess I'll have to stick to portraits and landscapes until I win the lottery

High you don't need really good lenses all you need is a half decent lens and some software here is a picture I took of our nearest neighbour the lens was £90/$150



1/400th of a second f8 iso 400, Sony SLT A37 with a 300mm lens (heavy crop)

Now to give you an idea below this is how much of the frame the Moon actual took up at that focal length Andromeda will fill most of the frame.



Look NO stars because of the exposure.

Pretty! I saved the image in one of my internet pic folders.
I love the colours in space.

reply to post by wmd_2008


It is really that big. All the light pollution from nearby stars and our own galaxy make it much more difficult to see, but that's the real shebang.

Show of hands...

How many have seen M31 (Andromeda galaxy)?
How many have seen...Saturn?
How many have seen a solar eclipse?
How many have tried?

I mean for real. Pictures are beautiful but don't approach the impact of the real thing. M31 is there. M42 (Orion nebula) is there. They aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

For some it only takes a moonless night. For others it takes a moonless night and a drive to escape city lights. But they are there and they are quite...awesome.

That's amazing. It's my new wallpaper as well.

reply to post by wmd_2008


nice like the photo its amazing what our eyes miss but a camera can see, Anyway thought you would want to see this its an article on the possible collision of Andromeda and the milky way its shows you what our skies would look like in the distant future.

www.dailygalaxy.com...

reply to post by Phage


Ditto. For the Andromeda or the Orion, all you need is binoculars and some dark spot away from street and house lights. It's quite something to be looking at that little foggy patch that is the Andromeda, and realise you're looking at a whole different galaxy 2.5 million light years away. On a good clear night, the Orion shows some nice nebulosity that is pleasure to observe.

I'm an advocate of using binoculars for stargazing ever since I picked them up and looked at the night sky. Besides the Andromeda and the Orion, you can see many star clusters, Jupiter's moons, and perhaps tease out the Triangulum galaxy too. While it might be difficult to see the Milky Way in light-polluted areas with the naked eye, pointing your binoculars in that direction will reveal rich star fields on a mottled background of billions and billions of stars too far away to resolve.

earthsky.org...

reply to post by wmd_2008




tone it down, son.

what im trying to say, is that even with the naked eye, and enhanced brightness, we would not see it in its full glory, as we see in NASA images such as the image next to the moon.

reply to post by wmd_2008


Thank you for that

I will have to give it a try some night. I have two cameras, Nikon D4 for sports [I cover downhill mountain biking in the uk in my spare time] and a Nikon D7100 which I use just as a carry around, do it all camera.

I have taken one time lapse video with 450 exposures and ran it through lightroom. Its not bad, but then it could be improved lol

Anyhooo, thanks again.

Spiro

Edit to Add: I was searching through some old pics of mine and found this from 2010. Its the Moon with Mars lining up together, or thereabouts. I'm not sure what the correct terminolgy is for it though, any ideas? All I can remember is that it was the first time in a LONG time Mars Lined up with the Moon

reply to post by wmd_2008


Thanks for that 'alternative reality' picture. From time to time you see these sci-fi pictures where the sky is viewed from an other planet or moon and see that the nightsky is filled with an other planet. I find such pictures mesmerizing and fascinating.

Would it not be great if our sky had a few of such constilations in the night sky? Who knows, maybe we had an other night sky to watch soon after the formation of our solar system.

S & F for you sir.

reply to post by wmd_2008


Fabulous picture. This is real screensaver stuff. Thanks for sharing.

8fl0z
reply to post by wmd_2008

 

tone it down, son.

what im trying to say, is that even with the naked eye, and enhanced brightness, we would not see it in its full glory, as we see in NASA images such as the image next to the moon.

edit on 27-3-2014 by 8fl0z because: (no reason given)

I might be older than YOU you missed the whole point of the thread and it's title, underlined the IMPORTANT word!!!


How Our Sky Would Look If Andromeda was Brighter