can the milky way be seen with the naked eye?

BEAT

on friday september the 10th and saturday the 11th I was laying outside stargazing and couldnt believe my eyes...first of all I have never seen that many stars in my life! It was a very clear couple of nights...maybe it was my location but I was amazed. I also saw a shooting star that friday night, it was great.
Anyway, I think I was looking at the Milkyway...A large oval shaped white space in the night sky covered by billions of stars...
Is this what I was looking at or was it just a random cluster of stars?

What I would have given to have a telescope with me that weekend!

Sleipnir

Well we're in it as you know so you can't see the whole thing

Yes, usually in winter you can see one of the 'arms' that swirls from the centre of the galaxy. It's a more dense collection of stars so that's probably what you were looking at.

It is amazing when you stare for a good while but now I live in Dublin city centre I can only look at the lights on top of the Spire and pretend.

When they're working that is.

BEAT

cool, thanks!

BEAT

I was just looking here, thanks to Mike :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/science/space/myspace/nightsky/observingnotes.shtml

and saw that it was actually part of the milky way I was looking at!! I pinpointed the exact location that was visiable at: Auriga!!

how cool is that, thanks again Mike!

jArgHA

The Milky Way is like a long wide 'river' of stars passing through the night sky. Within the arms of the Milky Way you'll spot hundreds of open clusters and globular clusters (with the aid of binoculars / telescope).

I'd recommend you pick yourself up some binoculars before a telescope. There's a misconception that you need a telescope to see most of the night sky objects, binoculars are yer only man to find your way around the sky and get an appreciation for what's up there.

Tea drinker

Yep, at a very dark sky site it is awesome.

I was down in west cork a month ago on hols, had to say I have never seen better views of the milky way, even the wife was well impressed!
Beautiful naked eye views were supplemented with occasional meteors with bright tails.
Super viewing of galaxies, ring nebula and clusters, even in my little 4.5 newt.
Was worth suffering the sister in law for a week down there!

albertw

Its visible all year round, if the sky is dark enough, light pollution info at www.irishastronomy.org/ilpac. I've even managed to see it in Dublin recently.

Its best in Summer when you can see Sagittarius[1], the center of the galaxy lies in that direction. This is low in the South in summer. More of the galaxy can be seen through Cygnus[2], including some of the dark bands if you are dark enough location. Auriga, the part youve identified as what you saw, is actually the faintest part, looking in that direction, you are looking out of the milky way.

Cheers,
~Al


[1] Very low down in the South, constellation looks like a teapot.

[2] The Swan, and it has some resemblence to a flying swan. Easier recognisable as the big `cross` overhead on Summer nights. Actually if you know where Auriga is, then look for cassiopea (the W), cygnus is about as far again in the same direction.

Flukey

I was in the English countryside over the weekend and Saturday night was a beautifully clear night. There was much more on view than I see from here in Dublin. It is nice to get these opportunities to see the skies from a rural location from time to time.

doh.ie

Where I'm from in a rural part of Co Sligo, on a clear night the Milky Way is almost always visible. Any budding astronomers among you should can just head down the country - I think you'll be very impressed by now much can be seen in the night sky when you're outside the light pollution of a city. Seeing Saturn's rings with just a pair of binoculars recently was particularly cool.

Sev

Im sure it was the milky way you were looking at. I know I can see it from dublin. From templeogue, in the early morning around 3am it tends to shine through (sometimes it takes some imagination tho). Where its going to look its brightest and most visible will be in the region around cygnus, the northern cross, because the milky way is particularly dense in that region and its also gets close enough to the zenith (directly over your head) that the sky is dark enough to provide good contrast. Closer to the horizon tends to get washed out by the city lights, so you have little hope of seeing the sagittarius region properly from the city.

In the summer you'll see a different milky way to the one that runs through the winter sky (it spans right the way round the celestial sphere). You'll find the summer milky way is generally brighter and more impressive (because youre looking towards the centre of the galaxy instead of away from it). And with a telescope the general trend is that youll find the bulk of star clusters and nebulae when you scan along the milky way band. Looking away from the milky way towards the void, you tend to see more galaxies and globular clusters (which reside in the halo, not in the spiral arms). It makes sense.

Although you should really do yourself a favour and get away from the city some night.. and I mean right away from the city,not just up the mountains, but put at least 30 miles between you and dublin. And then you might see the milky way in the way it was supposed to be seen.

Sev

Actually what does give you some perspective on the milky way.. and you can do this from dublin through the light pollution... is to get a pair of binoculars and peer into the region around cygnus (or anywhere else in the milky way) and just scan around through the stars that pepper your view. Then point your binoculars away from the milky way, towards the big dipper for example, and when you see how few stars there are in comparison, you'll appreciate the 'void' I speak of.

SpaceJunkie

Interestingly, our galaxy's name comes from early star gazers who believed that they saw the gods pouring milk from a jar across the night sky. Back then, they believed that all the stars they saw comprised the entire universe. Later, as our science and astronomy improved as did our instruments, we realized that most of what we saw were stars in our own little corner of space and that there were many "universes" out in space and not just the one. This required that a new word be found to describe these newly found universes and so "Galaxy" was coined. The "universe" now refers to all of space/time/matter & energy whether we can see/detect it or not.

It is unfortunate that at a time when space and space science is making advances faster then ever before, we regular folks cannot see as much of it from our back yards as we could 30 years ago. The light pollution gets worse as cities grow larger and the distance you need to travel to get away from it also grows larger. It was seeing the milky way glow as a young boy that contributed to my interest in astronomy today.

Flukey

That is all true. The beauty of astronomy is that even in the light pollution of Dublin or any city, there is still a lot to see. With less stars on view it can even make it a bit easier to see things as you can pick them out with less chance of confusion with something else, particularly if you are looking for something that is not so prominent and harder to find. With a pair of binoculars and a telescope, you can still see an awful lot. Although I am rarely able to get out from the city suburbs that I live in, as I don't drive, I can still enjoy the thrill of looking at the night sky and the wonders that it holds, from my garden or bedroom window. It is fabulous to see it from a rural area on those occasions that I am away from Dublin.