New Scientist - USA (2022-01-01)

1 January 2022 | New Scientist | 51

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What you need
A very dark sky
Binoculars

THE first week of the new year

brings us a new moon, and the

perfect time to hunt for the fainter

objects in the night sky. I will be

looking to spot a galaxy called

Triangulum, or M33, which can be

seen from anywhere in the world

with dark skies this time of year.

The most famous galaxy that

can be viewed from Earth with

the naked eye is Andromeda,

our neighbouring one, which

is 2.5 million light years away.

We have previously looked at how

to spot the Andromeda galaxy

(14 December 2019), and this is

often cited as the most distant

object from us that is visible with

the naked eye. But M33 is even

further away and can sometimes

be seen with no assistance,

although you need to be in a place

with exceptionally dark skies.

Triangulum is a spiral galaxy

2.7 million light years from Earth.

It is the third-largest member of

the local group of galaxies, after

Andromeda and our own, the

Milky Way. It was first catalogued

by Charles Messier in 1764, when

it was named Messier 33, though

it may well have been spotted by

someone else before this.

It was thought to be a nebula –

a huge cloud of gas and dust – in

our own galaxy. But in the 1920s,

Edwin Hubble showed that some

variable stars in Triangulum had

characteristics that enabled him to

estimate their distance. From this,

he demonstrated that Triangulum

was a galaxy in its own right.

It is so faint because it boasts

only about 40 million stars,

compared with the trillion or

The new year is the perfect chance to see the most distant

galaxy visible to the naked eye, says Abigail Beall

Stargazing at home

Triangulating Triangulum

so in Andromeda. As a result,

Triangulum can only be seen

with the naked eye from places

with excellent viewing conditions.

If you don’t have access to a dark

sky reserve, you can try looking

with binoculars. Either way, get

away from any sources of light

and let your eyes adjust for as long

as possible before looking for it.

Triangulum sits near the

Andromeda galaxy in the night

sky. First, find the constellation of

Triangulum, a small one between

the Andromeda constellation and

Taurus, which we have previously

found (2 November 2019). To do

this, draw a line between the

bright star Aldebaran in Taurus

and the small bright cluster of

stars, the Pleiades, also in Taurus,

and continue this in the direction

of Andromeda until you see three

stars forming a small triangle.
These are Gamma Trianguli and
Beta Trianguli, close to each other,
with Mothallah making up the
third point of the triangle.
Next, find the Triangulum
galaxy. To locate it, look between
Mothallah and Mirach, the
bright star in the centre of the
constellation Andromeda. The
galaxy sits about a third of the
way from Mothallah to Mirach.
It should look like a fuzzy blob,
roughly the shape of an egg.
Remember, you will need
extremely dark skies to see it,
and it is tricky to find, so don’t
worry if you don’t pick it out
Stargazing at home immediately. Good luck! ❚
appears every four weeks

Next week
Science of gardening

Abigail Beall is a feature editor
at New Scientist and author of
The Art of Urban Astronomy
@abbybeall

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