The Andromeda Galaxy Reference Guide

Our own drawings of the gap to scale, Hubble’s VAR! plate, a Cepheid’s rhythm, the black hole and the lopsided satellites; distance, width and speed with the sources compared; the 1923 story; Hubble’s giant pictures; the coming meeting; how to find Andromeda; and a glossary.

What’s inside:

- Andromeda at a glance

- Our nearest big neighbour

- How far and how wide?

- Sky size, stars and speed

- Before Hubble

- October 1923: VAR!

- Cepheids and V1

- Hubble’s giant pictures

- The black hole and the big meal

- A lopsided family

- Will Andromeda hit us?

- Find Andromeda

- Tips, the Isle of Man and the name

- Where good sources disagree

- Words you will meet

- Credits, licence and sources

Pages: 17 (A4) / 17 (US Letter). Formats: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter. Most inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; the cover and a few drawings are dark, so print those in colour or skip them to save ink.

Every fact is written in our own words and checked against named sources from NASA (NASA Science and the Hubble site), ESA/Hubble, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Encyclopaedia Britannica, the University of Michigan, Sky & Telescope, Nature Astronomy, EarthSky and Visit Isle of Man (checked 13 Nov 2026); the sources are listed on the credits page. Where sources give different figures, each is shown with its source. Our own opinions are clearly labelled.

Drawings and charts are our own. Photos are from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons or public-domain terms, credited on the credits page. Not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA, ESA, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Encyclopaedia Britannica, the University of Michigan, Sky & Telescope, Nature Astronomy, EarthSky, Visit Isle of Man or any other organisation, scientist or photographer named here.

Licence: personal use. Print as many copies as you need for yourself and your household. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For club, school or commercial use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind andromeda.galaxies.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.