Probably the furthest thing you can see with your naked eye!

The core of the Andromeda Galaxy M31 and its satellite galaxies M32 ( top left) and M110 (bottom right). Images captured with my 127mm and 66mm refracting telescopes from our backyard and combined using Registar software.

M31 is a spiral galaxy, whilst M32 and M110 are dwarf elliptical galaxies. Two dark dust lanes in M31 are clearly visible.  M31 is far bigger than is shown in this image which only encompasses its brighter core area.

The M31spiral is larger than our home galaxy the Milky Way and is estimated to be 220 thousand light years across. It is thought to comprise 10,000,000,000,000 or a trillion stars.  It is the nearest galaxy to our Earth, at 2.5 million light years, a light year is a measure of distance equivalent to 9,461,000,000,000 km or 5,878,000,000,000 miles, and from a dark site on a moonless night may be seen with the naked eye. It must be said that I have only managed to do this once!

The elliptical galaxy M32 is considered to be a satellite of M31, (although there is some conjecture that it might be three times further away), slightly nearer to us at 2.49 million light years and with a much smaller diameter at some 6.5 thousand light years.

The elliptical galaxy M110 is a satellite of M31 and approximately 2.7 million light years distant. Although this object has a Messier or M number, Charles Messier did not add this to his catalogue. In fact this did not happen until much much later in 1967. Athough this galaxy is described as elliptical it is of a special type designated a dwarf 'Spheroidal Galaxy'.

M31, the Andromeda galaxy, is a very long way away from us but it is heading towards our Milky Way at the heady speed of 68 miles per second.  I hope all the alien life forms living on planets revolving around stars in this galaxy are wearing their seat belts!

Credits: Wikipedia