ABSTRACT
The Andromeda galaxy, which we perceive with our unaided eyes only as a faint oval nebula, is both neighbor and kin to our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Viewed with binoculars or a small telescope, the Andromeda galaxy distinguishes itself from the foreground stars of our own galaxy as a glowing ball of light encircled by a wide, thin disk. The light from the disk shines feebly compared to that from the central part of the Galaxy; the disk appears as insubstantial as a skirt of tulle, although the ‘‘skirt’’ is actually a retinue of billions of stars.
