Thank you for those beautiful illustrations. Andromeda would be a magnificent sight, if only our eyes were sensitive enough to see its whole size.
I remember when I would look up and study the sky as a child and teenager (something I spent hours doing) I did notice a few things that looked like clouds, or “smudges,” but that definitely weren’t clouds because they were visible on perfectly clear nights. I’m pretty sure those must have been galaxies, but I didn’t know enough about practical astronomy to realize it at the time. Probably I was seeing Andromeda, because it is visible year-round where I live.
Back then my eyesight was far better than it is today, of course, I was often able to spot satellites moving rapidly and silently across the sky, seemingly ten times as fast as the high-flying jets that I loved to watch, with their flashing strobe lights and sometimes just-barely-audible whispering sound.
How I wish my eyes could still be that good.