The 5 Visible Galaxies

drkaii · Jul 28, 2015

In case anyone was wondering, south of the galactic plane there are four galaxies:

The largest are the dwarf galaxies of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds:

Magellanic_Clouds_―_Irregular_Dwarf_Galaxies.jpg

~160,000ly away

The larger of the two regular ones is Andromeda:

2.2Mly away

The smaller one is Triangulum:

3Mly away

North of the plane, there's a tiny red spiral galaxy seen almost completely side on. I believe it is the Sculptor Galaxy, but I'm open to alternative suggestions.

11.4Mly away
There should be a few more visible, but to be honest I haven't really tried to find them. Anyone spotted them?

EDIT: There are quite a few more galaxies visible, including Messier 83 near the Sculptor Galaxy, now that I'm paying attention. They are harder to spot, but I'll see if I can do some screenshots and name them at some point when I have time

antonygoldrick · Jul 29, 2015

Ooooo Shiny

Where's that old button for the galaxy jump drive.

Im sure I used to have one . . .

nexxo · Jul 29, 2015

Fun fact: the cosmic dust in the galactic arm where we reside makes our view a bit dim, but if we had an unrestricted view, the Andromeda Galaxy would look six times as wide as the full moon from our vantage point.

drkaii · Jul 29, 2015

antonygoldrick said:
Ooooo Shiny

Where's that old button for the galaxy jump drive.

Im sure I used to have one . . .

It's called Space Engine

nexxo said:
Fun fact: the cosmic dust in the galactic arm where we reside makes our view a bit dim, but if we had an unrestricted view, the Andromeda Galaxy would look six times as wide as the full moon from our vantage point.

Srs?

TruffleSnout · Jul 29, 2015

drkaii said:
Srs?

Indeed, the Andromeda Galaxy is quite large in our sky, but due to distance, dust, and our puny ocular devices (eyeballs with miniscule little pupils) it is very, very dim.

We could easily see it if there was a way to make our pupils really big, like say several inches in diameter...

That's the principle a lot of telescopes work on - they don't magnify per se, they just gather more light (i.e. make our pupils larger).

b0rg9 · Jul 29, 2015

nexxo said:
Fun fact: the cosmic dust in the galactic arm where we reside makes our view a bit dim, but if we had an unrestricted view, the Andromeda Galaxy would look six times as wide as the full moon from our vantage point.

Well someone bust out the galactic Swiffer Sweeper then!

nexxo · Jul 29, 2015

drkaii said:
Srs?

Truth, bro.

drkaii · Jul 29, 2015

TruffleSnout said:
Indeed, the Andromeda Galaxy is quite large in our sky, but due to distance, dust, and our puny ocular devices (eyeballs with miniscule little pupils) it is very, very dim.

We could easily see it if there was a way to make our pupils really big, like say several inches in diameter...

That's the principle a lot of telescopes work on - they don't magnify per se, they just gather more light (i.e. make our pupils larger).

Kind of makes me think of playing Space Engine with the Oculus Rift, turning the stereo base up to increase your size. You can literally be so big that galaxies are specs of dust, and fly through the universe like that, with them washing across your face

Roqinn · Jul 30, 2015

In a few billion years, it will look even larger to us!

Unfortunately it will be merging with our galaxy, so that might be bad news for us if we are still around.

drkaii · Jul 30, 2015

I don't see how it would be a problem

the space between stars is BIG.

Anyway, last night I decided to pay attention a little more and there are LOADS of galaxies to see. I might include them in the OP, but atm the OP has the 5 main ones

WR3ND · Jul 30, 2015

Yeah, we'll likely have much more pressing and significant issues with the Sun to deal with, if we're even still around then. Probably would need to build an "ark spaceship" to another planet in another system, if we're to survive long term. That's assuming we don't kill ourselves off from our collective greed and stupidity long before all that.

drkaii · Jul 30, 2015

WR3ND said:
Yeah, we'll likely have much more pressing and significant issues with the Sun to deal with, if we're even still around then. Probably would need to build an "ark spaceship" to another planet in another system, if we're to survive long term. That's assuming we don't kill ourselves off from our collective greed and stupidity long before all that.

This video basically summarises what will happen https://youtu.be/7uiv6tKtoKg

WR3ND · Jul 30, 2015

Seems he "missed out" mentioning the Sun's life cycle relevance to our planet. I've seen a fair amount of Vsauce in the past too, and while I appreciate some of it, the science is a little too... oversimplified and hyped for me. Don't mind me too much though; just nitpicking.

drkaii · Aug 6, 2015

I remember him mentioning it in that video. Did he really not?

Fubidou · Aug 6, 2015

I found these:

I circled the one I'd like to visit in red. There's another down below it (about 7 o'clock)
I'm guessing these are different (at least they look different to me) from the ones you posted. No way we can visit these then?

drkaii · Aug 6, 2015

Fubidou said:
I found these:

View attachment 53859

I circled the one I'd like to visit in red. There's another down below it (about 7 o'clock)
I'm guessing these are different (at least they look different to me) from the ones you posted. No way we can visit these then?

Yeah that one is andromeda, another galaxy twice the size of our own.

Maybe this picture looks more like the in game version

The one next to it in your screenshot to the left is triangulum, which looks a lot like the pic I put in the op