Don't know if I've found Andromeda or not

[Matthew.Blake]

I've just been out searching for Andromeda. Sadly I could only find one of the guide stars I've been practising with on Stellarium due to light pollution so had to do some guestimates along the lines of 3 thumbwidths up! After an hour or so of trying I found a very faint blob about 0.1-0.2 degrees across, could this have been Andromeda's core shining through or street lamps?

On the bright side, realising I'd never looked at Jupiter through a telescope and fancying an easy target, I had a go. How awesome is Jupiter - about 253 Awesomes I'd say, and that's a lot of awesome.

[Paxo]

Sounds like it probably was Andromeda, you can sometimes pick up at least one of the satellite galaxies which appear as a very small faint blob alongside.

I never fail at looking at the gas giants through a telescope or bins, I regress back to the first time I saw saturn through a scpe with a massive wow - everytime.

Steve..

[Sam]

Jupiter is amazing - I saw it last night for the first time this year and was blown away by the detail, the size and the moons - it truely is awesome. Well done on seeing Andromeda as well!

[vlebo]

Had a quick peek last night with my 10x50 binos at around 12.00am and managed to see Andromeda and a very bright Jupiter with three of its moons , a very clear night and a very rewarding 5 minutes.

Vlebo

[PeterW]

That's amdromeda, there aren't many things that it could be given your description. Bigger scope or darker skies and it'll appear larger and easier to see.

Cheers

PEterW

[Deneb]

hows the scope matthew ?

[Matthew.Blake]

Performing well so far. I really liked Jupiter last night, I'm hoping the clouds shove off tonight so I can get another glance. I'll wait for darker nights to try Andromeda again I think.