I can relate to this.<p>I somehow got in to hiking and camping sometime after college. While my family traveled a good amount, it was never to hike or camp or to remote areas.<p>On my first camping trip in the White Mountains in NH on the 3rd or 4th night I looked up and saw the Milky Way. I was blown away. At this point in my life I was an adult, with responsibilities, a healthy interest in science, and I never really put much thought in to it and I guess figured that whenever I saw starry night pictures that included the Milky Way that it was through a telescope, or an artists rendition, or something. Definitely not that you could actually see the Milky Way with your own eyes. To be honest it's insane. If you haven't seen the Milky Way with your own eyes, go.
It's worth pointing out that light pollution doesn't mean you can't enjoy the stars. After 20 years living in cities and forgetting much of the sky I loved as a country child, I moved from the heart of Manhattan - a 'white' area in this map (<a href="http://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/overlay/dark.html" rel="nofollow">http://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/overlay/dark.html</a>) - to a suburb half an hour away which is colored red.<p>In the city, I could see Jupiter clearly, and three moons through an ordinary pair of 12x36 binoculars from my 19th floor apartment window. With a very tired $40 yard sale 4" Newtonian refractor I could see bands on the planet on a winter's night. With the naked eye, the Summer Triangle, Capella, Sirius, and a few other very bright stars. None of it all that impressive from a quick glance upwards, but still stuff there to study with conscious effort.<p>Out in my new back yard, the view is breathtaking by comparison. On a very clear night with dark-adapted eyes there is just the hint of the Milky Way. On a normal night, the Pleiades are clear. The Andromeda galaxy is lovely through binoculars. But the real treat is the constellations - gorgeous and vivid, separated, teachable to my children.<p>I've been up Mauna Kea and nothing on earth can compare to that, but as an everyday treat, a bit of mythological theatre wheeling in the sky on a dark night, or even an evening's worth of nebula hunting, I'm blown away by my heavily light polluted back garden.
Living in the city, light pollution drives me a little bit crazy. I don't understand why so many people seem to be OK with <i>losing our ability to see the stars</i>... It also implies squandered electricity (and money).
Are the color pictures over exposed? I have seen the Milky Way lots of times (and quite clearly), but it always looked more like an almost gray cloud... I've never seen the kind of bright colors that are usually shown on pictures.
I'm confused by this part.<p><i>The summer Milky Way will look brighter.</i><p>If the author is referring to the galactic center being in view, then wouldn't that depend on whether it's summer in the northern hemisphere, or the southern hemisphere? After all, each hemisphere's summer is looking the opposite direction.<p>If the author is simply referring to the season, well I'd think the winter - having longer nights, colder atmosphere, and, at some latitudes, having nights <i>period</i> - would lead to darker skies and better viewing.<p>Can any one enlighten me?
Another nice site showing light pollution is <a href="http://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/" rel="nofollow">http://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/</a><p>The data hasn't been updated since 2006 but the change should not be that much different. I've contacted the author in the past, for some technical explanation:<p><pre><code> The NOAA data is the light source data. It uses the light source data as input to a model of light propagation in the atmosphere to estimate the light pollution.
This takes into account that the light pollution from a town or city (or natural gas field!) can affect the level of light pollution at locations far removed from the light source.
Technically, my light pollution atlas is the amount of artificial sky brightness at zenith.
</code></pre>
The site features also an overlay on Google Maps which shows the light pollution. It's a nice tool to find night photo spots. The one I've been using for some time with great results: <a href="http://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/overlay/dark.html" rel="nofollow">http://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/overlay/dark.html</a>
Here's a series of images Thierry Cohen made showing the view of the sky from various cities if they had no light pollution. <a href="http://architizer.com/blog/lights-out-what-if-cities-swapped-electric-lighting-for-star-studded-skies/" rel="nofollow">http://architizer.com/blog/lights-out-what-if-cities-swapped...</a>
And if you go to the southern hemisphere, you can see two other galaxies: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds</a>
This is a great idea.<p>Where the text discusses the origin of the term "Milky Way", I wish they would give the Greek name γαλαξίας κύκλος (at least in transliteration) rather than only giving the <i>translation</i> 'milky circle'. (The text does give the original Latin "via lactea").<p>I remember when the term γαλαξία was referenced in an amazing conlang puzzle which led to a series of events culminating in my awareness that γαλαξίας is ancient Greek for 'galaxy' (sort of), whereas γαλαξία is ancient Greek for 'milkshake' (sort of).
The server error on this page is a great example of how to build negative brand recognition. Hint to hosting companies: your error pages aren't a good place from which to link to your sign up page.
Just came back from a remote location in Cuba. Go out on a clear night, look at the sky for about 2-5 minutes to get your eyes adjusted, and enjoy the density of the milky way before you.
If you live in the Bay Area (South or East Bay), an easy to reach Dark Sky location is Henry Coe State Park near Gilroy. Doing an overnight camping there is incredible. You can spent all night gazing at the Milky Way. It was really amazing seeing the Milky Way again since my younger days. Try to choose a night that is close to a new/no moon night.<p>You can look up CA dark sky sites here: <a href="http://www.observingsites.com/ds_ca.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.observingsites.com/ds_ca.htm</a>
For those of you in the Bay Area that want to come out to the sticks a little bit, SVAS (Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society) has a pretty nice observing site in the Sierras. (check web site, contact somebody to get in as a guest) Midnight in August provides a very nice view of the Milky Way.<p>Andromeda looks pretty good (bright) through some of the large scopes that people bring up there, as well. (magnification is fairly trivial, you need a large telescope to get brightness)
I would argue that the majority of what anyone ever sees, including this text on your screen, is the Milky Way Galaxy.<p>In any case, anyone affected by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003</a> got to see a lot more of the Milky Way. I have never seen it more clearly than during the blackout.
Looking at the light pollution map [1]. There is a band of light between San Antonio and Corpus Christi that does not follow the cities/roads where you would except to see light.<p>Anyone know what this band represents?<p>[1] <a href="http://www.youcanseethemilkyway.com/light-pollution/" rel="nofollow">http://www.youcanseethemilkyway.com/light-pollution/</a>
I've always wondered this but have never had it answered. If we're in the Milky Way, isn't it safe to assume that 95% of the stars we can easily see are part of the Milky Way.<p>Basically, how can you NOT see the Milky Way, assuming you don't have some sort of ridiculous light pollution blocking all visibility?
I'm confused how exactly the dates were chosen in the section "Where can i see the Milky Way Galaxy from Earth?" They don't appear correlated to the moon phases calendar.
<a href="http://darksitefinder.com/maps/north-america.html" rel="nofollow">http://darksitefinder.com/maps/north-america.html</a> is a better dark sky map