Milky Way: What to look for/expect

[tjayh913]

This evening I took my first trip to a dark sky site that is blue on the light pollution atlas. It was an impressive number of stars compared to what I am used to, (maybe ~100), although not quite as many as I expected. Could even see much more of the Orion nebula than from my usual suburban location as home! However, I am somewhat surprised that I could not locate the milky way very much at all. I was hunting in the area between Orion and Gemini where it should be according to my planisphere, but I am not even sure I could make out any glow. The only difference I could find was a high density of stars. Do I have too high of expectations/the wrong idea on what the milky way looks like, or were the skies maybe not as dark as they ought to be?

[umadog]

The summer milky way is more salient than the winter milky way. This is because in summer it spends much of the night directly overhead, where it appears brighter since the light passes through less of the atmosphere. In winter it tends to skirt nearer to the horizon. Also, the summer milky way is broader and contains obvious dark lanes, which are dramatic from a dark sky. Depending on what time you were out, you may have contended with the moon which obviously would wash out the milky way. However, you say you were looking in the Orion area and that suggests you were looking earlier in the night.

If you were in Bortle 3 skies (i.e. a Blue zone) then the summer milky way would be eye-catching and obvious. It looks like a glowing cloud. Definitely take a trip back in the summer. My recollection of the winter milky way from Bortle 3 skies is more or less as you describe.

[MrTreyLynch]

This truly make me appreciate where I live!!!! We can see the milky way practically every clear night! I am 200 miles away from any town who's population is over 15,000

[glowjet]

We have travel to quite remote spots of the British isles to find half decent skies and then our visibility is nowhere near the clarity that you have in the States. but then we do not have Hurricanes or Tornadoes which you folks have to live with over there, so I suppose we should think ourselves lucky in that respect. But we would all love your skies

John.

[ollypenrice]

Now is about the worst possible time to see it, quite honestly, because as the Orion-Gemini section is relatively subtle and then the moon comes up. We call this 'the galaxy season' because, with the MW recumbent on the horizon, we see out of its plane to distant galaxies.

I live at a dark site and it truly is a fine sight to see.

Olly