Guide

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The Andromeda Galaxy in the evening sky

September to January

The Andromeda Galaxy is a separate spiral galaxy, 2.5 million light-years away, that is well placed in the evening sky from autumn into winter. From a suburban yard it usually needs binoculars, though a dark-adapted eye can sometimes pick out its bright core.

Why this time of year

By October the Andromeda Galaxy clears the eastern horizon soon after sunset in eastern Massachusetts, so it is up at a normal evening hour instead of after midnight, and it stays well placed into January.

How to notice it

  1. Go outside 45 to 60 minutes after sunset, away from direct streetlights. In September and October look east to northeast; by December the galaxy is nearly overhead at nightfall, and by mid January it is high in the west.
  2. Find the W shaped constellation Cassiopeia; a line drawn from its brightest star, Schedar, points toward the galaxy.
  3. Give your eyes time to adjust to the dark, then scan with binoculars for a small oval smudge of light.
  4. Try without binoculars first on a clear, moonless night. From a suburban yard, expect only the bright core, if anything.

Try this with kids: That faint smudge is a whole separate galaxy. The light reaching your eyes tonight left it 2.5 million years ago, around when our earliest ancestors were first making stone tools. Can you spot it using the W shaped stars of Cassiopeia the Queen?

light-year: the distance light travels in one year

Sources

  • science.nasa.govEstablishes the 2.5 million light-year distance, that the galaxy becomes prominent as autumn arrives, star-hopping via the Great Square of Pegasus or Cassiopeia, and that its core is visible even from areas of moderate light pollution on clear nights.
  • earthsky.orgEstablishes the 2.5 million light-year distance, that it glows in the eastern sky at nightfall in late September and early October, that winter evenings are also good for viewing, and that binoculars are recommended when it cannot be seen with the naked eye alone.
  • earthsky.orgEstablishes the two star-hop methods (Great Square of Pegasus via Mirach; Schedar in Cassiopeia) and that it is visible on dark, moonless evenings from late summer until the start of northern spring.
  • earthsky.orgGives the Cassiopeia star-hop (a line from Kappa Cassiopeiae through Schedar, extended about three times that distance) and confirms binoculars help from brighter skies.

Checked against these sources on September 28, 2026.

In the guide for September, October, November, December, January

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