Telescope Reviews: What does Andromeda look like?

In a 4" aperture, at least my experiences were that of an oval haze and the brighter companion galaxy joining in. With regard to seeing dust lanes and the like, I dont think you are going to make that observation with that scope - BUT - I have heard of it being done wiht a 4" refractor. I'd say you'd be better off with a 6" apeture for the task and frankly, anything larger is prefered.

Galaxies are just a really hard way to go even thru my 8". That doesnt mean its fruitless, but it is uphill when you compare it to say, anything over 12" aperture.

I highly recommend the following however. Just bare in mind it does take a seriously dark sky. I'm not familiar with the color rated dark skys and such but suffice it to say farmland is the way to go.

Heres my shortlist of brighter galaxies...

M64 Thr Blackeye Galaxy. Ive seen it readily in my 8" but never thru a 4" simply because I also never looked thru a 4" at the target. I think it rates as THE highest surface brightness galaxy.

M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy. A very very excellent example of a near edge on. Larger scopes will show the dustlane, but clearly, itll be bright enough for you to pick up.

M51 - As a kid with my 4 1/4" reflector I happily nailed this one repeatedly and returning to it often. You wont see the spiral pattern but you WILL see its companion galaxy "attached" via the glowing haze of the primary.

M94 is a nice strong core galaxy. Ive not seen it thru a 4.5" but I suspect that nice core would transmit well. The very tight spiral arms are the domain of larger reflectors. Ive not seen them thru my 8".

NGC2683. You know what - give this one a try. It looked great thru my 8". Its not a Messier object [quite a few nice targets are not] but it looked surprisingly good.
You may see its extended eliptical haze. I couldnt see rifts or any some such but the light was so clean and shaped i was still a pleasure. Its in lynx - a constellation I rarely visit, hence my overlooking this beauty.

M82- A muddled cigar shape galaxy undergoing some unusual activity. In my 8" its a muddle of lights and darks even from less than ideal skys. Surface brightness is robust [again, for a galaxy] and it was fantastic to use 35 power per inch and see the hug image filling the field of view.
Can you see any motteling in it? I dont know.

By the way, nearby youll see the large galaxy M81 as a roundish elliptical haze. Definitely a nice galaxy but
M82 for my money and aperture just shows up more defined.
If you spot one you'll certainly see the other.

M33 - when the world was comin g out of the haze from Mount Pinatubo that decimated deepsky to a great degree, it stunned me that M33 showed its spiral arms before M51!!
Will you see spiral arms in m33? Again, Ive never really heard it being done below 6" aperture. Keep in mind though
thats just my experience and knowledge. Maybe someone saw an arm with a 4" refractor. Could very well be with the right magnification and dark sky. Give it a shot. Just be forwarned; The "brilliance" of the Andromeda for sometime always made me look for nearby M33 as if subconsiuosly I was expecting it to be nearly as bright or in the same class. They are comparable in size. So often I missed it. Finally I got serious about it and did a dedicated look-see. When you finally nail it - its sweet. On its own terms, it has no Andromeda "core" to beacon you over there. But it has stellar associations and HII regions of starbirth activity that are worth their weight in gold in terms of galactic details had visually. I "heart" M33. In a 4.5" again, I think the arms will elude you - I could be wrong. What I would try is for the brighter HII region . IT'd be akin to nailing down a small planetary in terms of difficulty. I think you can do it though with the right magnification and sky. You might be able to hit more than one. They have nice surface brightness. Picture if you will miniaturized scale versions of the Orion Nebula in the arms of a distant galaxy. I say miniaturized form our perspective - huge for M33. Seeing a nebula in another galaxy - now wouldnt that be a cool? Im 65/35 in your favor you can pull it off.

The constellation LEO has some nice to choose from and in good proximity, NGC2903 is actually quite nice. Then theres M95,96. Beyond that, but nearby is the Virgo cluster of galaxies so dense with galaxies it becomes a point of stumbling on them rather then having to hunt them down - IF - you hit the right spot.

Lastly, bare in mind all those galaxies I have recommended for your aperture are vastly smaller than M31. Only M33 compares in size. They will need a higher magnification to fill the field fo view of thats your bent, but just remember, very often faint objects like galaxies will often show more distinction, or detail with a higher power than your lowest magnification scanning ocular. The eye in dim light differentiates between light and dark zones when the image is enlarged somewhat. Clearly this holds true for fainter stars as well. The field of view will appear darker at first. Dont let this put you off - often the faint object will reveal itself clearer too. It takes some experimentation. Something as high as 30x per inch of aperture can be of benefit at times. By comaprison, 7x per aperture is only rarely beneficial unless the object is so huge you need as wide a field as possible to see it all against the dark sky.

Good Luck!!

Pete

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