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thesadunicorn t1_jdsjxa1 wrote

Reply to comment by TocTheElder in Everyone talks about how huge Andromeda will look in the sky billions of years from now. I present you what the Milky Way *currently* looks like in the skies of our neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud. We appear absolutely huge in their skies! [Simulated view] by lampiaio

https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2020/02/4612-Image?news=true

According to this if the andromeda was fully visible, it would be like six times bigger than the moon.

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p-d-ball t1_jdtr8lj wrote

Wow, I'm kinda bummed we can't see it like that.

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RoastedRhino t1_jdva5rd wrote

It's still much bigger than people think.

We were on a group retreat and I convinced by office mates to look at the sky (we were next to a glacier in one of the darkest skies I have ever seen) and Andromeda is big! The general comment by everybody was "I thought it was something you cannot see without a telescope, or something tiny that you need to enlarge to see". But it's actually a big object in the sky!

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p-d-ball t1_jdvdyej wrote

That's awesome! I'll definitely have to look for it.

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canadave_nyc t1_jdvfye7 wrote

You can barely see Andromeda as a small ghostly pale splotch with the naked eye in a very dark sky. A slightly more resolved splotch if you use binoculars (you can see the centre splotch plus hazy oval splotch around it). It will be nothing like the well-defined colourful galaxy you see in photos. Just FYI :)

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p-d-ball t1_jdvgqr6 wrote

Ah, ok. Thank you for the info!

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canadave_nyc t1_jdvmzaq wrote

You're welcome. Here's kind of what it looks like in actuality (although even this photo shows it brighter than it actually is--the stars in the photo, for example, are brighter than they'd appear even at a very dark-sky site): https://p1-tt.byteimg.com/origin/pgc-image/26a4289388a84090929e80b9fcbc930b.jpg

It really just looks like a small very faint hard-to-find fuzzy ball to the naked eye in real life.

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killinghorizon t1_je1oawv wrote

The link seems to be broken.

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canadave_nyc t1_je2jitd wrote

Hmmm, that's odd--I tested it and it was broken for me too, but I just tried again and it seems to be working. Maybe it was temporarily down?

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Laxziy t1_jdxjbzl wrote

It’s still a beautiful splotch tho

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GraveSlayer726 t1_je0h7s7 wrote

really makes you realize the absurd scale of galaxies, even being so far away andromeda can still take up a tremendous amount of space in the sky, i hope i can go someone with little to no light pollution one day to see it

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sciguy52 t1_jdu7dt9 wrote

Well you can, just need more help than just your eyes. Hence the telescopes. But it would be really need to see in the sky if you could see it with eyes alone.

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MannyVanHorne t1_jdvhg0j wrote

Dude, obviously. What did you think he meant?

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sciguy52 t1_jdvx0q1 wrote

Yeah I see your point. It was late and I was falling asleep and didn't read it right. Also said need instead of neat for what it is worth.

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junktrunk909 t1_jdv9y4t wrote

It's relatively easy and affordable to get equipment that'll let you see it like that

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BeestMann t1_jdufma5 wrote

If we were to go to the moon… would we see Andromeda more clearly from there?

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tom21g t1_jdvaclk wrote

Imagine public visits to the moon with the added bonus of seeing Andromeda like that

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