Three majestic constellations will rise in tonight's dimming twilight.
The moon is a thin crescent tonight and will set a little before 8 p.m. As the sky darkens, note the large bright square of Pegasus the Winged Horse joined to Andromeda the Maiden, who was the daughter of nearby Cassiopeia the Queen of Ethiopia.
These constellations are large and relatively bright and easily seen once recognized. However, like many constellations they have no resemblance to their supposed mythological characters. To me, Pegasus looks like a large square with some extensions on its sides. Andromeda looks like a line with side projections, and Cassiopeia looks like a chair sitting askew in the sky.
Inside the square of Pegasus are dimmer stars. How many you can see depends on how dark your sky is.
Andromeda is especially interesting, because it contains the Great Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31 after the famous French astronomer Charles Messier (1730-1817), who included it as the 31st entry in his catalog of important sky objects.
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The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million to 2.9 million light years away, and it is one of the most distant objects visible to the naked eye.
It can be seen with the unaided eye in a dark sky, and it is a wonderful sight in binoculars or a small telescope.
M31 is a large spiral galaxy comparable to the our parent galaxy, the Milky Way.
In fact, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are the largest galaxies in the Local Group of Galaxies of about 40 members traveling together through space as a small galaxy cluster. The Milky Way must be an impressive sight from the Andromeda Galaxy.
Are there creatures in that galaxy staring at the Milky Way, admiring it like we admire their galaxy?