What does our Galaxy look like? That is a tricky question to answer since we're in the middle of it. But there is a similar kind of galaxy very close to us that we can all see with our naked eyes: Andromeda.

Andromeda (aka M31) is the Milky-Way's next-door neighbour and an ideal place to study many areas of astronomy. However, the many millions of stars crowded into it make it almost impossible to examine in detail.

The event will start at 8 pm with a presentation by Dr. A. Newsam "Andromeda - probing the mysteries of our neighbour galaxy" where he will outline the latest results from an ongoing, ambitious project to use "gravitational microlensing" techniques to "pick out" individual stars and learn more about this important object. This talk will be followed by a brief introduction on what is visible in this month's sky.

Afterwards, visitors will get a tour of the NTU observatory and the chance to see interesting objects in the winter sky with the observatory's telescopes, small telescopes, and binoculars if the weather allows it.

If the weather is not good, a small planetarium session will be offered in the observatory pointing out objects of interest.

Booking is required for this event. Please contact Daniel Brown to register.

For further information about the optical observatory, please visit the observatory website.