Galaxy
M32 (M32)
In Andromeda (And) • Magnitude 8.7 • 8.0 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with M32 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A small, unusually dense elliptical galaxy orbiting the Andromeda Galaxy as a satellite companion. Its remarkably compact core is thought to be the stripped remnant of a once-larger galaxy that had its outer stars pulled away by Andromeda's gravity long ago — essentially a galaxy that got eaten, leaving only its core behind.
M32 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M32, N 221 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Andromeda (And) |
| Right ascension | 00h 42m 43s |
| Declination | +40° 52' 12" |
| Apparent magnitude | 8.70 |
| Surface brightness | 12.3 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 8.0 × 6.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 86° |
| Best imaging months | Jun, Jul, Aug |
How to image M32
M32 sits in the constellation Andromeda at right ascension 00h 42m 43s and declination +40° 52' 12". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window. As a galaxy, M32 needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.