# Who has seen the Milky Way? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 8, 2019, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904 "2019-09-08T23:25:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/1 "2019-09-08T23:25:00Z")
When I was much younger, one of the greatest influences on my life was seeing the night sky and the Milky Way. Closest I ever came to religion. It saddens me to think that so many people have no idea of the grandeur of a rich and dazzling, seemingly three-dimensional night sky. Bottom line, have you seen the Milky Way? ---
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/2 "2019-09-08T23:28:24Z")
Just the other night from a campsite in Vermont ( just visiting). Quite frequently at home in Maine. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/3 "2019-09-08T23:31:25Z")
Used to see it when I’d camp out at my uncle’s farm in Connecticut. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/4 "2019-09-08T23:32:37Z")
I hope not only people who’ve seen the Milky Way will be drawn to this poll! ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/5 "2019-09-08T23:33:34Z")
I have, but it makes me sad it’s been so long. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/6 "2019-09-08T23:48:58Z")
Fairly often. Best was on a Navy ship (routinely darkened at night) during clear nights in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The sky there defies description. It becomes hard to pick out familiar constellations - they are washed out by an astonishingly bright background of stars. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/7 "2019-09-08T23:55:32Z")
> [@JackieLikesVariety](#): > > I have, but it makes me sad it’s been so long. This. I only ever saw it in all its glory in 1986 at a camping site at Timmendorfer Strand at the Baltic coast. I think I was a bit drunk and was the last guest at the camping site to still be awake and outside of the tent, and the sky overwhelmed me like never before or after. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/8 "2019-09-09T00:17:24Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere rural enough to see it. At least not that I can recall. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/9 "2019-09-09T00:18:01Z")
Nope. Never seen it. Even on the best of nights my eyes just aren’t good enough to see it. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/10 "2019-09-09T00:28:14Z")
I saw some great star expanses as a kid but how close they came to fitting what you mean I cannot say; we were certainly rural enough. But now with all the lights and cities and all -------- nothing close in maybe 30 years. I was a maybe. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/11 "2019-09-09T00:39:05Z")
I am lucky to own property in an area that has pretty dark skies, so I can see it from our back yard. However, I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, and I don’t think I saw it until I moved to the Southwest. [Here’s a thread with some recent photos.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=878299) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/12 "2019-09-09T00:46:23Z")
I can still see it; but not as well as I could when I was a child, and fewer places had outdoor lights left on all night. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/13 "2019-09-09T00:47:29Z")
Saw it all the time growing up in Alaska. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/14 "2019-09-09T00:50:04Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I am lucky to own property in an area that has pretty dark skies, so I can see it from our back yard. > However, I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, and I don’t think I saw it until I moved to the Southwest. > > [Here’s a thread with some recent photos.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=878299) Oh wow! Those are great and I am jealous! I lived in Alberta for a while, in Calgary very close to a provincial park. Just like yours, the nights there were low humidity and often transparent. I could see the Andromeda Galaxy, naked eye, from my back porch. I am seriously thinking of spending some serious time in Arizona in the next years. I will soon have that time. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/15 "2019-09-09T01:09:56Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Oh wow! Those are great and I am jealous! > > I lived in Alberta for a while, in Calgary very close to a provincial park. Just like yours, the nights there were low humidity and often transparent. I could see the Andromeda Galaxy, naked eye, from my back porch. I am seriously thinking of spending some serious time in Arizona in the next years. I will soon have that time. PM me when you come out, and we’ll take a Stargazing trip. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/16 "2019-09-09T01:20:45Z")
Seen it? I’ve _been there._ ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/17 "2019-09-09T01:36:58Z")
It’s been a while but I have seen it in rural Maine. Yes, seeing the Milky Way requires very dark skies. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/18 "2019-09-09T01:37:17Z")
I would have said “no” until last Saturday, when I was at an undeveloped State Park. It was dim, but I was able to confirm that it was the Milky Way because I have [Mobile Observatory](https://zima.co/) on my phone. Having seen it, I realize that I probably have seen it before back when the skies were darker/cleaner where I live, and it was so subtle I mistook it for light clouds. (It is nothing remotely as obvious as beowulf’s photos, at least where I live.) I knew that it was futile to attempt to photograph it with my phone, but I tried anyway. I deleted the actual photo, but [here](https://imgur.com/a/39tY5Ox) is an approximation of what I got. (That’s Jupiter.) ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/19 "2019-09-09T01:54:53Z")
Last summer in Yellowstone. It was quite dazzling. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904/20 "2019-09-09T02:12:49Z")
The first time I _really_ remember seeing the Milky Way was when I was 18 visiting my cousins in Tasmania. Until then, I thought I’ve seen starry skies, but didn’t realize that, no, I had never truly seen starry skies. It was breathtaking. I distinctly remember thinking “Oh, _that’s_ why they call it the Milky Way.” Plus there was the added bonus of seeing an unfamiliar southern sky with none of the familiar constellations. What is weird is that we did take a visit to Yellowstone and parts of the West that are known “dark sky” locations when I was 14 or 15, but I guess I didn’t have the opportunity to look up at the stars at night, or perhaps it was overcast (though we were away for a good week, so I doubt that.) At any rate, that was the only time I would have been exposed to the possibility of seeing the Milky Way until then. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-seen-the-milky-way/839904.md?page=2)