Observing The Milky Way with the naked eye

Right then,

Sleepy here as we come in from a session with the 'scope. Nice stuff seen.

Yes many of the things I look at require a small telescope to see but some don't. Go out at the moment whilst we have clear skies and simply look at the Milky Way. Simply marvel at its beauty. In the constellation of Cygnus is wanders through but when it comes to the horizon through Sagittarius it positively glows brightly. So much so that last year I confused it with cloud!

I leave you with the poem by Walt Whitman which sums up what I get out of astronomy

When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer

WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; 5
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

Good night.

Hm, sad that he viewed true astronomy that way. No doubt there is beauty in what can be seen with the naked eye, but there is much, much more beauty that can't.

No IPJ chill. I think he just wanted everyone to feel the peace of being out there. Wouldnt take it as a slight on astro people! I am starting myself to read on the web a bit about theoretical astronomy with regards to Hertzsprung Russel diagrams and I am reading about variable stars at the mo.

The Sagittarius Star Cloud is fantastic isnt it?

Nope, I disagree. He expresses negativity by saying he felt "tired and sick."

I think the only time I've ever managed to see the Milky Way with the naked eye was up a mountain in the Atacama desert in South America, more than 100 km from the nearest town. And it was an impressive sight. But I don't think I've ever seen it from Europe, even with the clearest skies. That's what comes of being a city dweller.

I certainly remember being able to see the Milky Way no problem when I was at school in central Scotland in the late '50s / early '60s, on the other hand the light pollution was probably considerably lower then, especially in a small town with a population of only about 5000 (at a guess).