Re: How do I know if I am looking at the Milky Way

On Jul 21, 4:26 pm, brucegooglegroups <brucegooglegro...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
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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