Is the streak of haze seen in the night sky one of the "swirls" of our galaxy?

Answer 1

Yes, the Milky Way takes a streaming path across the top of the sky. I like to compare it to living in the suburbs of a big city. You've got city lights in all directions around you but you'll see the most lights when you look towards downtown. Especially if you pretend to be in about 5 floors up because downtown will look like a band of light from your perspective with the center being just full of lights.

Astronomers used to believe that the separate streaks in the Milky Way were separate "arms" of the spiral galaxy but now they know that the streaks are not actually separate. They only appear to be so because there are streaks of dark matter obscuring some of the light from our view.

Answer 2

If you live in an area where there is little light pollution, then yes. You can actually see the galaxy going across the entire sky from northeast to southwest in the summer and northwest to southeast in the winter. It's not as bright in the winter so you need a really dark sky to be able to see it.

Answer 3

If you can still see that you are extremely lucky!!! The haze you see is part of the Milky Way - the galaxy we are in.

There is so much light pollution in most areas now that it's impossible to see it. When I was a kid 40 or so years ago we could go out in my backyard and see it clearly in the sky. Within 10 years it was impossible to see anymore.

Answer 4

Yes, that's the Milky Way. If you can find the constellation Sagittarius in the sky, that is the direction towards the center of our galaxy.

Answer 5

My father took ill, and I went to spend last week with him. He lives way, way out in the boonies. The sky was so dark I could see Andromeda. Yes, that is our galaxy you see, and if you live in a dark enough area you can see several nebula in it. I own a six inch telescope, but can't remember the last time I did so much star gazing as I did in my fathers front yard with his beat up pair of binoculars :)