im pretty sad right now

[todd8137]

The first night I looked for this I must have passed it by a million time but now ,can find it in seconds

Pat

[jthombs]

A well aligned finderscope and route 2 for me 

[LukeSkywatcher]

I used Cassie to find M31 the first time. In both my last house and this one it was/is a naked eye object so now i just look up and once i see Cassie, i just focus my attention a but lower down til i see the faint grey smudge and thats it.

[MarsG76]

Make sure your magnification isn't too high... Use the lowest power you can to locate M31 in your scope.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

I use this method for finding the Andromeda Galaxy, I worked it out using Stellarium. (The picture's a quick n nasty 'Paint' job, but I hope its helpful!!!)

[Piero]

Try these. I use method 2 as it takes you right to it, you can't miss!

Nice one Stu! 

There is also a "Route 3" 

I made it myself one time descending from C22 (NGC7662, Blue Snow planetary nebula) which is right above the trio of stars Iota, Kappa, and Lambda And. 

A bit of a crazy route, I know! But I was quite excited after seeing the Blue Snow and I came down in that way.. 

Anyway, Route 2 is a classic and well tested path to go! 

[BVietje]

I usually use Method 2, but to make Method #1 a bit clearer, imagine that the other end of that arrow is Polaris, with the 3 stars of Cassiopeia as the arrow head -- dead on.  For a go-to telescope, you really must have it properly aligned or its MUCH worse than useless.

[Night Hawk]

Method 1 for me. As much as I try with my finder charts and stellarium. I haven't had much luck finding M33 though. There's always tonight......    

[Dazzyt66]

So, the weather has been abysmal but the other night there was a brief gap in cloud. Didn't have time to get the 150p setup so grabbed the finder scope instead. Method 2, straight on it! Was only a smudge in the fs but at least I know I can go straight to it now... If these bloomin clouds ever shift! [emoji120]

[Stub Mandrel]

M33 ought to be easy (with an EQ mount) going west from the 'point' of Triangulum. Got it to work once, but failed every time since :-(

[ronl]

I go the way John Sadler has drawn, scan down from Cassiopeia, second bright star along,

straight up and my Rigel Quikfinder does the rest, works every time.

[spaceboy]

Make sure your magnification isn't too high... Use the lowest power you can to locate M31 in your scope.

Agreed! I know many a beginner myself included who have made the mistake of thinking telescopes are all about magnification. Andromeda is fricking huge and is way bigger than most people can appreciate as more often than not all that is visible in most scopes under light pollution is the core of the galaxy. Stick to the lowest magnification you have and let your eyes get dark adapted. When M31 is directly over head on a very transparent night you will get a hint of just how big this galaxy is even under city skies but it takes experience and patience at the eye piece to pick out all the subtle details. Use FLO's FOV calculator to give you an idea of what you will be looking for in your low power eyepiece http://astronomy.tools/

HTH