Milky Way. My step-son, who lived in Turkey until he was 17, said he had never seen the Milky Way?

Question

I lived in northern England, but , when I come to think about it, I don't recall seeing the Milky Way, here in Switzerland. Is this something like the Northern Lights, which is only visible in northern regions of the northern hemisphere

No, sorry, but I would like a serious answer. I believe he has never seen the Milky Way,and I don't remember seeing it here in Switzerland.
He calls it the Milk Road (Milchstrasse)

Just me, just you. I would have to be seriously (possibly clinically) depressed to confuse a chocolate bar with the Milky Way - and YES, I do look up and my step son comes from a rural area in eastern Turkey.

Yes Chris K. They do sell them there (Turkey) and my step-son has been in Europe since he was 17.
We can also buy Milky Ways in Switzerland.

Great answers, but I still don't know why, growing up in the Lake District (not too much industrial light) I often saw the Milky Way and my son, who grew up in a rural area of South-East Anatolia (almost no industrial light) has not seen the Milky Way, and why both of us haven't seen it since we have lived in Switzerland (in an area which does not have much light pollution).

Answer 1

In a clear dark sky, the Milky Way should be easily visible at some point during every single night of the year, anywhere on Earth. Yet large numbers of the Earth's population today have never seen it. 100 years ago, every single person on Earth who wasn't blind would have seen it and been familiar with it. The reason is light pollution: we throw so much light up into the sky nowadays that the Milky Way is invisible over large parts of the Earth.

When there was a major earthquake and power failure in Los Angeles a few years ago, people were phoning up the radio stations and asking whether the earthquake was caused by the strange silvery cloud inthe sky. These people were seeing the Milky Way for the first time in their lives!

Answer 2

Look into the sky. All the stars you see are part of the Milky Way galaxy....we can't see stars from any other galaxy without telescopes etc. as they are too far away, and would be too dim to see with our eyes.

The Milky Way is the galaxy our Solar System is in, so it's nothing like the Northern Lights (which is just a natural phenomenon). Everyone who has seen a star in the night sky has seen a part of the Milky Way. In fact, anyone who has looked at the Sun, has seen a part of the Milky Way, because we're in it.

If you're talking about the almost cloud of stars you can sometimes see in the sky, well, it's very possible he hasn't seen that, as even when there is no light pollution, there is plenty of air pollution, even in very rural areas. So a slight haze in the sky would prevent you from seeing it. One of the best places to go in Europe is a mountainous area, as the altitude takes you above a lot of pollution, and makes the sky a lot clearer.

Answer 3

The milky way should be visible to anybody with normal vision, with dark-adapted eyes, on a dark night away from city or town lights. A full or even half-moon could be too bright; it will drown out the milky way. Also any haze or clouds in the sky will interfere with seeing the milky way.

The Milky Way appears brightest in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius; it passes as far north as the constellation of Cassiopeia and as far south as the constellation of Crux. On the equator, you can see the whole MW during the course of a year; at the north (or south) pole, you can see only half of it. The best dates for viewing are around late August to January.

See the link below for some pictures of the milky way.

Answer 4

Sadly very few people today have ever seen the Milky Way because city lights have gotten so bright that the night sky in cities is brighter than the Milky Way. You have to go to a dark country location, far from any city lights, to see it. We think of ourselves as knowing more about astronomy that those ignorant ancient Greeks, but the fact is that the average person back then knew far more about the night sky than most people today know. Because they could see it any time while we have to make special trips to dark places. I once took a group of 5th graders to a dark site to view the night sky and when we got there some of them asked me to point it out. I pointed to the irregular dim band of light stretching across the whole sky and they seemed disappointed and disinterested. Probably spoiled by colorful Hubble Telescope pictures or something. Real nature is just too boring.

Answer 5

The milky way is a collection of stars and planets. Our planet earth is one of those in the milky way. It is not a star or lights, it is all the stars and planets; that said, since our planet is apart of this milky way, when we look into the sky, that is what we see. Kinda, like, if you were to say you never seen the earth, well we live on earth, so when you look at the ground, you are looking at the earth, you know? It is just from a zoom point. We are lookong very closely at the earth as well as the milky way since out planet is IN the milky way.

Answer 6

Milky Way is the name of our galaxy (indeed, the word "galaxy" comes from "Milky Way" in Greek - same root as in "LACTose").
Our galaxy is disk shaped and we, in the Solar System are located close to the rim of it, far from the center.

However, normally "Milky Way" refers to a white stripe one sees across the sky (rather than to some scientific object that is not directly observable).
It is formed by the stars, mostly far awy from us close to the center of our galaxy, where the density of stars is much higher. This is one reason you a cloud, rather than individual stars.
Another reason is that the galaxy is disk-shaped, and you see it only when looking parallel to the plane of this disc.

The reason most people never saw it is LIGHT POLLUTION -- as two people already have pointed out.
Indeed, Galileo would never have made his astronomic discoveries if he lived in one of our cities -- he would not see most of the stars visible in his times.

Answer 7

The milky way is the galaxy (a collection of millions of stars) that the Earth is in.
Depending on where you are there is a faint disk of concentrated stars that is the side on view of the disk of the Milky way. (we are near the edge).
Look on google sky and you will see what I mean. Its a loose band of stars and its visible from pretty much anywhere on the lanet if you have little ambient light around.

Answer 8

technically these people are right and missing the point.

yes, almost EVERY star you see including our sun is part of the milky way.

the milky way is the galaxy we are in.

if you are in a dark region, where there are NO major cities nearby, and NO lights (like a truck stop) or even highway lights, then you can look up and see this beauty.
http://epod.usra.edu/archive/images/summermilkyway_gross.jpg
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/209/mar31/milkyway.gif
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/objects/images/milky_way_pm_0806_500.jpg
http://www.mallorcaweb.net/masm/obstel/vialactea.GIF

this is probably what you are referring to when you say milky way. You can see this from any where on the planet in any season.

The key is to get away from light pollution

!!!smack dab in the middle of AUSTRIA is a good start,
http://www.iota-es.de/light_pollution/Switzerland_Austria.gif

!!!or you can venture out to just about and country side you can find in ROMANIA
http://www.iota-es.de/light_pollution/Hungary_Romania.gif

also, to help you understand what you are seeing
http://www.perthobservatory.wa.gov.au/OB05390/galaxydiagram-small.gif

its mostly the spiral arm, called the Orion Arm that we see at night (minus the massive glow behind it, thats the core, called Sagittarius A)

Answer 9

No - we're part of the milky way so it should be visible (sort of) everywhere.

You need to go somewhere without light pollution and, on a clear night, you should see a kind of dusting of stars across the sky. That's as much of the milky way as we can see with the naked eye.

EDIT: Yep, it's probably called The Milk Road because you see it as a kind of stripe across the sky.

Answer 10

every single star you see in the night sky is part of the milky way galaxy (our home galaxy).

the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are charged particles found high up in the magnetosphere.

see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)

light pollution severely limits our ability to observe the milky way. it is impossible to see from most major cities and towns (unless there's a blackout).

the band of pale light stretching across the night sky commonly referred to as the milky way are countless masses of stars and other material aligned on the galactic plane.

here's a photo i took from a dark sky site in west virginia:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1086/1404185456_e4dd26504d_o.jpg