Andromeda - The Chained Lady

Mythology - Andromeda was the beautiful daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. One day Cassiopeia boasted that she was more beautiful than the sea-nymphs or nereids. When Poseidon heard this he was enraged and sent huge waves crashing down on their city. After consulting an oracle Cepheus reluctantly chained his daughter to a rock on the edge of the sea as a sacrifice to Cetus, Poseidon's fearsome sea monster. Just as she was about to be devoured, she had a stroke of luck. Flying overhead was Perseus the hero, on his way back from a mission to kill Medusa. Quick as a flash he dived down and stabbed the monster through the heart. Not only was Andromeda saved, but the handsome Perseus went on to marry her.
Stars - Almach is a beautiful coloured double star when seen through a small telescope. It is actually a triple system, one orange and the other two a very close blue/green pair.
Deepsky - The showpiece object in Andromeda is the Great Galaxy M31. This is visible as a fuzzy patch with the naked eye on dark nights. It is 2.2 million ly. away and is the furthest object visible with the unaided eye. It is a spiral galaxy tilted at about 20° to us and so appears oval and extends over a full 3° of sky - 6 times the width of the full moon! Binoculars will reveal the bright core region, but to see any detail in the spiral arms requires a much larger instrument and clear dark skies.
The Andromeda spiral is the Milky Way’s "big brother", containing an estimated 300 billion stars. Just
as we have satellite starclouds (the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds), Andromeda has two smaller
companions, M32 and M110 which are visible in binoculars or a small telescope.
Visibility - Andromeda is an Autumn constellation best seen from November to December