Universum: 33. THE LOCAL GROUP

The Local Group is the group of galaxies that includes our galaxy, the Milky Way. The group comprises over 30 galaxies, with its gravitational center located somewhere between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy
The two closest galaxies to the Milky Way are called the Magellanic Clouds, which may be viewed as satellite galaxies to the Milky Way at a distance of a little less than 200,000 light years.
They are only visible in the Southern Hemisphere, but can easily be seen by the naked-eye and their brightest stars can be seen with binoculars. They are irregular galaxies and are much smaller than the Milky Way. Below the Large Cloud and a more accurate detail of it showing that is not exactly a "cloud".

Two galaxies are visible to the naked-eye in the Northern Hemisphere. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is a great spiral galaxy much like our own at a distance of about 3 million light years. This galaxy and the Milky Way are approaching each other with a speed of 119 km/sec and will collide with each other within 6.3 billion years.

The other galaxy of the local group that is visible to the naked eye is the spiral M33 in Triangulum at a distance comparable to that of Andromeda. It too is a spiral galaxy, but it is smaller than Andromeda and therefore is harder to see.