Have you ever seen the Milkyway?

I have. My grandfather had a mining camp in northern Nevada, very remote and 6300’ elevation. Very black sky at night. You can see for parsecs.

Yes. South Rim Grand Canyon in 1956 !
Thought I could reach and touch the stars !

It was amazing !

Where do you live?

I’ve seen the Milky Way many times in many places. It is worth seeing. I’m an amateur astronomer so I go out and seek these places.

Many times. Grew up on a farm.

I saw a galactic band when we were in Yosemite about 30 years ago.
We were over 6,000 feet at the western entrance, and I didn’t see any light pollution.

The first time I saw it well was when I was camping in the Sierra Mountains. I was about 13.
I now live in northern Northern California, on the side of a volcano (Mount Lassen). You can see it most every night.

No but I’ve eaten a few.

Yes, I grew up looking at it every clear night.

I saw it when camping and unable to sleep. Unforgettable.

I did. Camping out in the mountains in Idaho. No light pollution.

Yes. Used to see it all the time in NY when I was a kid. I haven’t looked for it in years. I’ll have to do that. Thanks for the reminder to look up at the night sky.

Never seen it in all it’s gory. I have experienced a few clear nights where you can start to make out the band but I was travelling in a lower light polluted area like Colorado. The southeast is heavily light polluted. I would be an amateur astronomer if not for that.

I’ve seen the Milky Way many times.
I made a time-lapse video of the Milky Way from the bottom of the Grand Canyon using my GoPro camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyGLRR0GW1w

@Caravanfan A very populated area.

No. It was my Father’s favorite Candy bar so I had no chance of ever seeing it.

As our Solar System is situated in the Milky Way Galaxy every time we look up at the night sky we are gazing at the Milky Way.

Many of the stars you see when you look up, even though you are in an area where there is light pollution are part of the Milky Way Galaxy.

BTW – Over the years I have eaten possibly 100s of Milky Way chocolate/candy bars (Lol).

Forgive my ignorance, but we’re IN the Milky Way. So why do we have such an oblique angle when we look back at the center of our own galaxy? In other words, why isn’t the solar system co-planar with the rest of the star systems in our galaxy?

@Dig_Dug I’m trying to help you here by finding the nearest dark sky site for you.

@gorillapaws The solar system is not coplanar and is it a partial angle, and the Earth is tilted on its axis relative to the rest of the solar system (why we have seasons). So at night in the spring time and early summer in the northern hemisphere we look away from the plane of the galaxy. The northern hemisphere angles towards the milky way in mid summer to early winter so that’s the best time to see it.

Constellations to look out for that are “smack dab” in the middle of the Milky Way are Casseopeia and Cygnus, especially Cygnus (the Northern Cross). If you see Cygnus then you’re looking right up into the Milky Way. You can grab a pair of binoculars and see tons of stars, even if the faint glow is not visible to you.

This graphic will show you what I’m talking about. Zoom out and manipulate it until the Milky Way is edge on. Then zoom back in. Or manipulate the solar system so it’s edge on and then zoom out. Works just as well.

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/our-solar-system/overview/

On nights that are nice I can see it.

And just as a point of interest if you’re looking towards the constellation Sagittarius then you’re looking toward the center of the MW.

@Caravanfan Okay That is F#cking Cool! That NASA thing is in real time! OMG! NICE! I found the ISS over South America. HA

If you ever go to Molokai, Hawaii then you can get a magnificent view of the Milky Way on a moonless night.

Looking up at the Milky Way in the darkness it felt like I was standing on the edge of the Earth and I could just step out into space.

@Dig_Dug OK. Well, if you let me know where you live, more or less, within a hundred miles, I can find you a dark sky site.

If you are interested in seeing the ISS there are multiple websites for telling you exactly where it is. It’s easy to see even in an urban environment with bright lights. One such website is heavens-above.com

Here is a dark sky map.
https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html#4/38.03/-79.54

The colors are called a Bortle Scale
You’re looking for somewhere that is Bortle yellow or better.

^^Thanks for that. According to the map, near my house I need to drive over to the Ocala Forest, or drive out to the beach.

One of the blue areas was just west of where my grandparents used to take me during the summer in NY. My grandmother was the one who taught me about the night skies, aside from going to the planetarium. She would point out Orion, the Big Dipper, Casseopia (sp?) and the milky way just to name a few. My guess is 45 years ago where we stayed was in the blue area, it is just more populated now.

I’ve seen it most clearly while at Lassen due to high altitude (~7000 ft), clean air, no light pollution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassen_Volcanic_National_Park

Yes. Used to be easy even in the city.

I wasn’t even thinking altitude. That NY spot was definitely higher up than where I am in Florida.

Where I lived in TN I lived in an arbor city and also my town did not allow up-lights on the house. You know how people light their house at night because they think it looks pretty?They didn’t allow them so the skies were dark and starry. There was still quite a bit of light pollution though. A lot compared to being out in the country. They kept all the commercial areas near the interstate, or in very specific pockets of the town.