you're suffering from the effects of spatial relativity. you're saying, "hey, andromeda is light years away", and it is; it's about 2 light years distant. but viewed from polaris, which is about 400 or 500 light years away, and is the perspective of a p5 team like LSU, the milky way and andromeda appear to be the same smudge in space.
so, you're both right.