can the milky way be seen from earth all year round?

Question

from my understanding, the milky way should only be visible half the year. The other half, we are looking toward the perseus spiral arm. And less stars should be visible during that time.

I am talking about the faint white haze that can be seen on clear nights. I know that the visible stars are part of our milky way galaxy. but I am talking about the white haze sometimes visible with the naked eye.

Answer 1

The "faint white haze" we see is the near edge of the spiral arm.
During part of the year we see the near edge of the spiral arm closer to the galactic centre. During the other part of the year we see the near edge of the spiral arm farther from the galactic centre.

Due to nebula and dust clouds, we can't see the centre of the Milky Way (in visible light) at any time.

Answer 2

In principle, the Milky Way should always be visible. In practice, there are times when you can't really see it.

The Milky way makes a band the wraps all the way around the sky. Here's a 360-degree panorama: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Milkyway_pan1.jpg . Since it's a ring making a great circle, some part of it is above the horizon at any given time, unless the Milky Way exactly lines up with the horizon.

Suppose you're in the midlatitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, observing a few hours after sunset. In January, you can see the Milky Way towards Auriga. In August, you see towards Cygnus, in the opposite direction but still into the Milky Way. In May, the Milky Way comes just above the horizon to the South, but you can hardly see it.

On the other hand, you might be thinking of the spot marking the center of the Milky Way. That's only a point in the sky. You can see it around six months out of the year, but it's more or less depending on where you are on Earth. If you're at the North Pole, you can't see the center at all. If you're at the South Pole, you see it every night.

Answer 3

I Love the answers.

Yes. it is visible all year. As long as your not around any light pollution.


http://earth.google.com/ v4.2 is nice with a sky/star database, could use work with time lines and planets though


overlays for google earth to help you find the DARK spots (in the US)
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=269838

Answer 4

every star you can see as an individual star is in the Milky Way galaxy

Answer 5

you have to have a very, very clear night in a place with basically 0 lighting to see that band of dust. i have never been fortunate enough to see it.

Answer 6

It's the center of our gallexy. How would you explain the absence of billions of stars?

Answer 7

We ARE the milky way