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Comment by divbzero | Hacker News Reader

The article mentions that the galaxy is a big target for Hubble to image but doesn’t specify exactly how large: Andromeda stretches 3° across our sky compared to our Moon’s apparent diameter of 0.5°. It would be quite a sight to behold if it were bright enough to see by naked eye.

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Is it not (assume no light pollution)

It is visible if you know where to look, but still not exactly the easiest thing to discern since it is just a fuzzy patch to the naked eye.

I've seen it very clearly with my naked eyes in Argentina. One prerequisite though - it was 5500m high on Aconcagua camp (we camped also in 6000m but sky was the last thing I was concerned about there). Any decent mountain ie in European alps will give you massively starry night if sky is clear, but that place was a notch above.

Those few unfortunates who died on 8000m peaks by ie getting lost and had the chance to see a starry night must have seen quite a spectacle.

It's not so much the altitude that gives you a clear view (although that also helps), but the lack of nearby light pollution and lack of clouds. The European Alps are lit up like a Christmas tree and in most places will not give a spectacular view of the night sky. Western Europe is just a bit too highly populated for good easy astronomy.

Rural Queensland Australia was amazing and my best views of the milky way. It is something else. There is a lot out there!

The southern hemisphere has more bright interesting stuff (including the centre of the milky way) than the northern hemisphere.

The easiest way to see it is with averted vision (looking slightly away from Andromeda, so that it falls on the most sensitive part of your retina). Unfortunately, though, with the naked eye, it just looks like a faint smudge.

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