Andromeda is not the closest galaxy. The closest currently known galaxy is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy but this wasn’t known until after the story took place. However, others were known at about this time such as the Large Magellanic Cloud which is only visible from the Southern Hemisphere but has been known for centuries, or Draco Dwarf which you can see with a good telescope in the Northern Hemisphere. Andromeda is however the only one that is easily visible and very large in the Northern Hemisphere.
I thought the LMC and SMC were considered to belong to a lesser category of galaxies than Andromeda. Or am I just thinking of the spiral/blob distinction?
There are size/shape distinctions but they are all galaxies. There are issues with spiral/blob issues although in the last few years the discovery of a lot of smaller dwarf galaxies have raised issues with the standard classification. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about this in detail. Size issues may be relevant in that LGM is much smaller than Andromeda (by a factor of around 100).
Andromeda is not the closest galaxy. The closest currently known galaxy is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy but this wasn’t known until after the story took place. However, others were known at about this time such as the Large Magellanic Cloud which is only visible from the Southern Hemisphere but has been known for centuries, or Draco Dwarf which you can see with a good telescope in the Northern Hemisphere. Andromeda is however the only one that is easily visible and very large in the Northern Hemisphere.
I thought the LMC and SMC were considered to belong to a lesser category of galaxies than Andromeda. Or am I just thinking of the spiral/blob distinction?
There are size/shape distinctions but they are all galaxies. There are issues with spiral/blob issues although in the last few years the discovery of a lot of smaller dwarf galaxies have raised issues with the standard classification. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about this in detail. Size issues may be relevant in that LGM is much smaller than Andromeda (by a factor of around 100).