Re: With a 6-inch telescope what is the Andromeda Galaxy supposed to look like?

Hello, Yurissa!
The Andromeda galaxy (NGC224, M31) is quite a large object, spanning several degrees of sky. What it looks like in a 6-in. scope is somewhat dependent, as you probably already know, on the magnification you are using. At your lowest magnifications, you still can't fit it all in, but the (not very distinct) boundary between it and the empty sky around it is more likely to be in the field of view and easier (to me) to see. Certainly you should see the much brighter central core of the galaxy as well. At higher magnifications it actually becomes harder to see, as most of the time you will either have a view of either all empty sky or all galaxy, which tends to look somewhat brighter but is rather featureless. At some magnifications, especially with nice dark skies, you can see the galaxy's dust lanes as darker bands through the main galactic area. You can also catch the two satellite galaxies NGC205 (aka M110) and NGC221 (aka M32).

Here's what the Night Sky Observers' Guide notes for the Andromeda Galaxy:

"4/6" Scopes--25X. At low power M31 stretches beyond a two-degree field while M32 and M110 command attention at opposing sides. At 40X, a deep sky filter reveals many light or patchy areas along the length of its arms. At 100X, M31 is a large, flat oval of greyish light.It is very elongated and suddenly very bright toward the center with a round core about 8' in diameter. Spiral arms extend the the NE and SW with the SW arm being brighter. A dark lane divides the SW extension starting at the nucleus and running about halfway out. The arms in the NE region are not as prominent, but there is a slight brightening on the outer edges to the east. Many faint stellar objects are visible throughout M31; these are globular cluters and HII regions that deserve to be studied in greater detail in a large telescope.

To find those "stellar objects," you pretty much have to know where they are in advance as they are essentially indistinguishable from faint Milky Way field stars. The above description also pretty much needs dark skies to get all the detail mentioned. In city skies the galaxy becomes very hard to separate from the background sky glow.

Spend some time on Andromeda. Move your scope slowly and look carefully at each part of it at several magnifications. You'll probably see more than you did on the first pass.