M 32 Deep sky · Galaxy in Andromeda · M 32 · NGC 221
M 32
The small, bright elliptical galaxy pressed against the Andromeda Galaxy — perhaps the stripped core of a bigger galaxy that came too close.
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- Type
- Galaxy
- Designations
- M 32 · NGC 221
- Constellation
- Andromeda
- Apparent magnitude
- 8.1
- Apparent size
- 9′ × 7′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 00h 43m · Dec +40° 52′
The full Moon, about 31′ across, is 3.7 times as wide. The Sun comes no nearer to it than 33°, around mid April, so it is never lost in the Sun’s glare, which reaches about 15° out.
When to see it
On the night of Wed 29 Sep 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT+1 | Never sets | 01:10 · 80° | — |
| New York EDT | 15:53 | 01:05 · 90° | 10:17 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:12 | 01:15 · 50° | 07:19 |
| Sydney GMT+10 | 20:30 | 00:06 · 15° | 03:43 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes, on any clear night of the year — it is circumpolar from there and never quite sets, though at its lowest it skims the horizon, where trees and haze will hide it.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 14° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around late September, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by late December it is highest in the early evening, and in late June not until the hours before dawn.
- How bright is it?
- Magnitude 8.1 in total, but that light is spread over 9′ × 7′ of sky: on average 21.1 magnitudes per square arcsecond. Against a dark country sky that average stands out; a city’s glow drowns all but its brightest parts.
- Naked eye, binoculars or telescope?
- Binoculars. At magnitude 8.1 it is past the eye, but a 50 mm pair under a dark sky reaches about magnitude 11.0.
Look for
A small telescope pointed at the Andromeda Galaxy shows M 32 just south of its core, like a fuzzy star on the edge of its glow.
History
It was the first elliptical galaxy ever seen, found by Guillaume Le Gentil in the eighteenth century — though nobody then knew it was a galaxy.
Look for
From 50° north it is circumpolar and never sets; from 35° north it climbs to 84°; from the equator it climbs to 49°; from 35° south it climbs to 14°.
Look for
Magnitude 8.1 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (3.6 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (1.1 short); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (2.9 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (4.5 to spare). Those limits are for a point of light; its light is spread over its whole size, so it needs some of that margin in hand. Through 7×50 binoculars, whose field is about 7.1° across, it spans 2% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 14% of the field’s width.