(Skimmed) Milky Way spotted overhead!

[Dunkster]

For those of you living with a nice dark sky on clear nights, please spare a thought for those of us blighted, for whatever reason, with a grey sky... in the year since I've been looking up from here I've never believed I've seen anything above mag 4.0 with the naked eye, at least until last night...

As I'm stuck on earlies this week, I just went out for quick look before going to bed. Having let my eyes adjust for a few minutes, I realised I could a few of the stars in the square of Pegasus (one to the right and down of alpha And, the other two over towards beta Peg) and one very faint between the top 2 stars of the square. Then I leant back I could see a faint lightness in the otherwise darker grey (not black!) sky. Eyeballs scouting, I located Cygnus to confirm what my head couldn't believe my eyes were seeing, and sure enough Cygnus was bang in the middle. I could see this faintness (hereon known as skimmed milk ) for almost 3/4 of my view north-south, the rest blighted out with the orange glow.

The stars in Pegasus I believe I could see are psi, nu and tau Pegasi, and the very faint one I believe (from Stellarium) to be 78 Pegasi at mag 4.95! Quite a result considering my previous estimations, and surprising in that it'd been quite a hot day and was still 20+ degrees and feeling on the humid side. I'm assuming the view was determined by decent transparency, which is the opposite I would have expected...

Unfortunately the sky towards Andromeda was blocked by my neighbour's trees, but if I'm ever blessed with another night light this, what are the chances of seeing M31 naked eye? How dark does the sky need to be to be able to see this, and our own Milky Way? (skimmed as it may be from here...)

Anyhow, I just wanted to share my excitement and sneak in a more general question

[Ganymede12]

I remember my first sight of the MilkyWay a few weeks ago at Blaenavon. My first Galaxy as I recall (My second was Andromeda last night).

It's significance and sheer scale makes it probably one of the best sights in the night sky!

[Daniel-K]

i live on the edge of liverpool my sky is about mag 5 -5.5 i can see the double cluster and m31 naked eye on most clear nights as well as the faint "skimmed milk" milky way above

[Naemeth]

I remember seeing some of the Milky Way when I was down in Sidmouth. It looked like high clouds or faint mist, but it wasn't! Such an awesome sight.

[3Rotor]

took this one last night... Enjoy.

45 exposures at 1600iso / 35s with my 1100D through Deepskystacker. I did not bother too much with other photo software, just tweaked it in DSS til I liked what it looked like..

[Dunkster]

Wow, what a great view! The M W is pretty awesome

[estwing]

looked nice through the bins last-night...

[3Rotor]

I'm actually in the middle of another 60 shot run right now, watching it over teamviewer.

[Mike73]

Dunkster

I always forget to make an effort to look for naked eye Messiers when I'm at my dark site, I just concentrate on star hopping and using my Telrad but I'II make an effort tomorrow night and see how many I can spot.

Last time I was out I could see M31 but I spent the evening looking at objects in Sagittarius where M8/Lagoon Nebula was easily visible and makes it an easy start for navigating that area.

[Dunkster]

Ahhh dark site... that would be a real treat sadly my work schedule practically ties me to the house outside of holidays

I stuck my head out again last night and struggled to see the SMW, and could only barely make out tau Pegasi. What a difference a day makes. The forecast is claiming it'll be clear again tonight but 95% humidity, not much good for my SCT (or my sleep for that matter!)

[Carbon]

I have to drive 90 miles to see the MW.

[Dunkster]

Sorry to hear that Carbon, but I bet it's spectacular when you get there!