With the new moon darkening the skies, you’ll have a rare shot at spotting the Milky Way, deep-sky galaxies, and even the ...

Jack Wojczynski The Andromeda galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to our own, the Milky Way galaxy. “Close” may be deceiving, though, because Andromeda is over 2 million light years away!

Then, on Monday, May 26, 2025, it will enter the New Moon phase, when it will be 0 percent illuminated and invisible in the sky. This is perfect for those who want to see the Milky Way.

You can see the duo together either with your naked eye or, better yet, a pair of stargazing binoculars, from the night of Jan. 31 to the early morning of Feb. 1 in the southern sky.

Spring (March-May) is known as “galaxy season” to amateur astronomers, with a greater number of galaxies visible in the night sky than any other time of year.