Constellation, Chained Maiden
Andromeda
The chained princess of Greek myth, rescued from a sea monster by Perseus. It holds the Andromeda Galaxy, the most distant thing most people can see without a telescope.
From New York on October 13, 2026, the centre of Andromeda rises at 2:47 PM, is highest at 12:12 AM (89° above the horizon in the N) and sets at 9:36 AM.
In the 3D sky
The sky over New York turned towards Andromeda. Drag to look around.
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Evening visibility over the year
Height of the constellation’s centre above the horizon at 10 pm local time on the 15th of each month, from New York. Above about 30° it is well placed.
Name and history
Andromeda was a princess of Ethiopia, daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. Her mother boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, the sea nymphs. The offended Nereids asked the sea god Poseidon to punish her, and he sent a monster to ravage the coast. An oracle told Cepheus to sacrifice his daughter, so Andromeda was chained to a rock by the sea. The hero Perseus, flying home after beheading Medusa, saw her, slew the monster and married her. In one Greek story the goddess Athene set her among the stars, with her parents, her rescuer and the monster nearby.
Her brightest star, Alpheratz, takes its name from the Arabic for ‘the horse’. Ptolemy listed it under Pegasus as the horse’s navel, and it still marks a corner of the Great Square. Mirach comes from an Arabic word for the girdle or loin cloth. The first known record of the Andromeda Galaxy is in the Book of the Fixed Stars by the astronomer al-Sufi, who called it a nebulous smear.
Sources: Ian Ridpath, Star Tales: Andromeda
Brightest stars
| Star | Designation | Magnitude | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpheratz | α And | 2.07 | 97 light-years |
| Mirach | β And | 2.07 | 197 light-years |
| Almach | γ1 And | 2.10 | 393 light-years |
| δ And | δ And | 3.27 | 106 light-years |
| Nembus | 51 And | 3.59 | 177 light-years |
| Alfarasalkamil | ο And | 3.62 | 687 light-years |
| Udkadua | λ And | 3.81 | 86 light-years |
| μ And | μ And | 3.86 | 130 light-years |
| Shimu | ζ And | 4.08 | 189 light-years |
| Titawin | υ And | 4.10 | 44 light-years |
Facts
| Area | about 725 square degrees (19 of 88) |
|---|---|
| IAU abbreviation | And |
| Sky | Northern sky |
| Origin | Listed in Ptolemy’s Almagest, about AD 150, from older Greek tradition |
| Stars brighter than magnitude 5 | 30 |
| Centre (J2000) | 0.7 h, 42° |
Deep-sky objects
Galaxies, clusters and nebulae brighter than magnitude 9, from the OpenNGC catalogue. Most need binoculars or a telescope and a dark sky.
Boundaries: International Astronomical Union, via Astronomy Engine. Areas are computed from the boundaries by sampling (within about one percent). Names and lines: Stellarium. Stars: HYG Database. Deep-sky objects: OpenNGC. Calculated with Astronomy Engine, an open-source library verified against the US Naval Observatory and NASA JPL. Data sources
How to use this page
Choose your place and a night at the top. The answer and the 3D view show where the constellation is, when it is highest and whether it rises at all from where you are. The chart shows its stars and lines, and the tables list its brightest stars and the deep-sky objects inside it.
Frequently asked questions
When is a constellation best seen?
When it is highest in a dark sky, which the page gives for the night you pick. Each constellation is best placed in a particular season, because the stars rise about four minutes earlier every night.
Why can I not see a constellation from my place?
Constellations far south of the celestial equator never rise from northern places, and those far north never rise from southern ones. The page says when this is the case.
What are the constellation boundaries?
The International Astronomical Union divides the sky into 88 areas with official boundaries. The stick figures are only a drawing aid, the boundaries say which constellation a point in the sky belongs to.
Related guides
- How to learn the constellationsStart with one bright pattern you cannot miss, use it as a signpost to its neighbours, and come back a month later: the sky will have turned, and you will know a little more of it.
- Altitude and azimuth: finding things in the skyTwo angles tell you exactly where to look: which direction, and how high.
- Light pollution and dark skies: the Bortle scaleFrom a city centre you can count a few dozen stars. From a truly dark site you can count a few thousand, with the Milky Way bright enough to cast a shadow. The Bortle scale puts a number on the difference.
- Binoculars for stargazing: what to buy and what to look atA pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars shows the craters of the Moon, the moons of Jupiter, dozens of star clusters and the Andromeda Galaxy, for a fraction of the cost of a telescope.