Look halfway up the sky to the east at this time of year on a cloud-free night, and preferably when the Moon is not around, and you will see the W-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia.
The five main stars of this pattern represent a legendary queen of Ethiopia cast into the sky by the gods to punish her for her vanity. Below the W is a line of relatively bright stars: her daughter Princess Andromeda.
Can you see, from a dark place, a faint blur of light beneath the right-hand V of the W? Binoculars will help. This is the Andromeda Galaxy, immensely farther away than the Milky Way stars we see in the night sky. A giant spiral system of possibly a trillion stars, its light has taken over two million years to reach our eyes. Our local group of galaxies has about 50 members, and you may have heard that the Andromeda Spiral is coming towards us. The good news is that it won’t be encountering the Milky Way for another three billion years. Starry skies!
Picture: Ross Gould