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Date: 21 Jul 2007 16:26:43
From: brucegooglegroups
Subject: How do I know if I am looking at the Milky Way
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I live in a semi rural area. The other night I saw two narrow bands,
looking like clouds, space in the middle, moving south to north. Is
this the Milky way?
It looks like the Milky way in Stellarium and Starry Night, but I not
sure.
I also saw this same pattern, which stretched across the entire south-
north meridian late during the day. So perhaps they are only clouds.
But this pattern is different than other clouds and moves differently.
Or are they cirrostratus clouds?
Comments?
Bruce
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Date: 22 Jul 2007 13:16:45
From: Rick Evans
Subject: Re: How do I know if I am looking at the Milky Way
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"brucegooglegroups" <brucegooglegroups@hotmail.com > wrote in
message
news:1185060403.842657.220710@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com...
>I live in a semi rural area. The other night I saw two narrow
>bands,
> looking like clouds, space in the middle, moving south to
> north. Is
> this the Milky way?
That sounds about right. One way to confirm your sighting is
to
look for Cygnus the Swan which looks like a cross with its
staff
facing South. Cygnus "flies" South along the Western band of
the
Milky Way.
>So perhaps they are only clouds.
> But this pattern is different than other clouds and moves
> differently.
The Milky Way's shape will stat the same night to night.
>
> Or are they cirrostratus clouds?
Cirrostratus clouds will change hour to hour. The Milky way
will show no perceptible change in appearance in our life
times.
Well, okay there's that occasional supernova for the
nitpickers ;-)
--
Rick Evans
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lon -71° 04' 35.3"
Lat +42° 11' 06.7"
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Date: 21 Jul 2007 22:44:09
From: William Hamblen
Subject: Re: How do I know if I am looking at the Milky Way
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On 2007-07-21, brucegooglegroups <brucegooglegroups@hotmail.com > wrote:
> I live in a semi rural area. The other night I saw two narrow bands,
> looking like clouds, space in the middle, moving south to north. Is
> this the Milky way?
> It looks like the Milky way in Stellarium and Starry Night, but I not
> sure.
When you look at the Milky Way through binoculars or a small telescope
you will see many faint stars. When you look at cloulds you just see
clouds.
Bud
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Date: 21 Jul 2007 20:32:43
From: canopus56
Subject: Re: How do I know if I am looking at the Milky Way
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On Jul 21, 5:26 pm, brucegooglegroups <brucegooglegro...@hotmail.com >
wrote:
> The other night I saw two narrow bands, looking like clouds, space in the middle,
> moving south to north. Is this the Milky way?
You were probably seeing the disk of the Milky Way, obscured by gas
clouds in the constellation Cygnus. The milky white bright areas are
on either side of the black clouds - called the Great Northern Rift.
These well-known bright areas are currently, for North America, north
and south of each other rising in the eastern horizon after 11:00pm.
But their apparent motion is east and west across the sky, not north
and south, due to the rotation of the Earth.
If you have a planisphere, many are marked with the general outline of
the Milky Way's disk. I believe that the Milky Way's disk is also
outlined in Starry Night.
- Clear Skies - Canopus56
Images of the Great Northern Rift and the bright disk of the Milky Way
beyond (in Cygnus).
http://canopus.physik.uni-potsdam.de/~axm/photo.cgi?Image=images/mwpan45s_full_c
http://home.arcor-online.de/axel.mellinger/
http://canopus.physik.uni-potsdam.de/~axm/mwpan_vr.html
http://www.allthesky.com/constellations/cygnus/main.html
A Planisphere with a disk of the Milky Way printed on it (can also be
purchased at your local planetarium)
http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/education/skies/cs-planisphere_e.html
Clear Skies - Canopus56
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Date: 22 Jul 2007 00:59:14
From: Chris L Peterson
Subject: Re: How do I know if I am looking at the Milky Way
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On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:26:43 -0700, brucegooglegroups
<brucegooglegroups@hotmail.com > wrote:
>I live in a semi rural area. The other night I saw two narrow bands,
>looking like clouds, space in the middle, moving south to north. Is
>this the Milky way?
>It looks like the Milky way in Stellarium and Starry Night, but I not
>sure.
>
>I also saw this same pattern, which stretched across the entire south-
>north meridian late during the day. So perhaps they are only clouds.
>But this pattern is different than other clouds and moves differently.
>
>Or are they cirrostratus clouds?
>
>Comments?
It's not clear from your description what you saw. From the northern
hemisphere, the Milky Way looks like a solid band in the north, and
splits into two bands in the south (the split happening around Cygnus).
It runs roughly north-south when high in the sky, which at this time of
year is around midnight. It can resemble high clouds if you don't know
what you're looking at. Can you see all the stars of the Little Dipper?
If so, you should not have any problem seeing the Milky Way.
_________________________________________________
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
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Date: 23 Jul 2007 17:49:38
From: Curtis Croulet
Subject: Re: How do I know if I am looking at the Milky Way
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> It can resemble high clouds if you don't know
> what you're looking at.
I've had people at RTMC say, "Oh, look, there's clouds," pointing at the
rising Milky Way. They'll even argue about it. This is in a place full of
astronomers. Go figure!
--
Curtis Croulet
Temecula, California
33°27'59"N, 117°05'53"W
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Date: 22 Jul 2007 00:34:55
From:
Subject: Re: How do I know if I am looking at the Milky Way
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On Jul 21, 4:26 pm, brucegooglegroups <brucegooglegro...@hotmail.com >
wrote:
> I live in a semi rural area. The other night I saw two narrow bands,
> looking like clouds, space in the middle, moving south to north. Is
> this the Milky way?
The Milky Way is our home galaxy. Composed of nebula, globular
clusters, and other assorted goodies, if you look at any star visible
in our night sky (unless you are peering at an amorphous blob of stars
of another visible to the naked eye galaxy like M31) you are seeing a
part of the Milky Way. Same with looking at the naked eye M42.
However, what you are asking is, were you looking into the plane of
the Milky Way. Your statement about moving south to north is
confusing. Are you saying "positioned?"
Martin R. Howell
Moderated sci.astro.amateur
www.moderatedsciastroamateur.org
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