Located in the northern celestial hemisphere, it is named for Andromeda, daughter of Cassiopeia, in the Greek myth, who was chained to a rock to be eaten by the sea monster Cetus.

Andromeda is most prominent during autumn evenings in the Northern Hemisphere, along with several other constellations named for characters in the Perseus myth.

With a variable brightness similar to Alpheratz, Mirach (Beta Andromedae) is a red giant, its color visible to the naked eye.

The stars that make up Pisces and the middle portion of modern Andromeda formed a constellation representing a fertility goddess, sometimes named as Anunitum or the Lady of the Heavens.

[2] It has also been called Persea ("Perseus's wife") or Cepheis ("Cepheus's daughter"),[2][9] all names that refer to Andromeda's role in the Greco-Roman myth of Perseus, in which Cassiopeia, the queen of Aethiopia, bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids, sea nymphs blessed with incredible beauty.

[10] Offended at her remark, the nymphs petitioned Poseidon to punish Cassiopeia for her insolence, which he did by commanding the sea monster Cetus to attack Aethiopia.

[10] Andromeda's panicked father, Cepheus, was told by the Oracle of Ammon that the only way to save his kingdom was to sacrifice his daughter to Cetus.

[12] Perseus and Andromeda then married; the myth recounts that the couple had nine children together – seven sons and two daughters – and founded Mycenae and its Persideae dynasty.

Andromeda was one of the original 48 constellations formulated by Ptolemy in his 2nd-century Almagest, in which it was defined as a specific pattern of stars.

[16] Since the time of Ptolemy, Andromeda has remained a constellation and is officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union.

Devyani and Sharmishta are wives of King Yayati (Perseus Constellation) who is the earliest patriarch of the Kuru and Yadu Clans that are mentioned frequently in epic Mahabharat.

Scholars believe that the Hindu and Greek astrological myths were closely linked; one piece of evidence cited is the similarity between the names "Antarmada" and "Andromeda".

She bore many demons for her husband, Apsu, but eventually decided to destroy them in a war that ended when Marduk killed her.

[9][14] In the Marshall Islands, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Triangulum, and Aries are incorporated into a constellation representing a porpoise.

[55] It is an enormous – 192.4 by 62.2 arcminutes in apparent size[11] – barred spiral galaxy similar in form to the Milky Way and at an approximate magnitude of 3.5, is one of the brightest deep-sky objects in the northern sky.

[56] Despite being visible to the naked eye, the "little cloud" near Andromeda's figure was not recorded until AD 964, when the Arab astronomer al-Sufi wrote his Book of Fixed Stars.

[58] The future of the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies may be interlinked: in about five billion years, the two could potentially begin an Andromeda–Milky Way collision that would spark extensive new star formation.

[60] The distance he found was far greater than the size of the Milky Way, which led him to the conclusion that many similar objects were "island universes" on their own.

[29] M32 was discovered in 1749 by French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil and has since been found to lie closer to Earth than the Andromeda Galaxy itself.

[24] Lying approximately 3 degrees southwest of Iota Andromedae at a distance of about 4,000 light-years from Earth, the "Blue Snowball Nebula"[11] is a popular target for amateur astronomers.

[11][66] Upon further magnification, it is visible as a slightly elliptical annular disk that gets darker towards the center, with a magnitude 13.2 central star.