Possibly dumb question

[skiddieleet]

So, from what I understand, you can actually see Andromeda naked eye from a dark site.  Through my telescope with light pollution, I can just see the bright center.  I'm assuming the Milky Way Galaxy also has a similar bright center.  So my question is, why don't we see a large bright spot in the sky from the center of the milky way?  Are we too close, so what's at the center is more dispersed?  Is it too faint?  Are the stars not condensed enough?

[Charic]

skiddieleet........Hi, The only dumb questions are the ones you don't ask!

Its not possible to see the centre of our own Galaxy. And the reason for that is too long winded, suffice to safe a "Balck Hole" is in the centre and we cant see black holes. But this wiki explains far better than I can. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way

[skiddieleet]

If I'm reading correctly, you can see parts of the milky way as a "hazy band of white light" that is unresolved stars, which sounds similar to what I see of the Andromeda Galaxy.  It sounds like you can see the center as well (although not the very center that is the black hole).  I guess I really need to get out to dark skies with the moon below the horizon so I can have my mind blown .  I was just thinking since it's a lot closer than andromeda, the center would be a lot brighter and I should be able to see it even in not so dark skies.

[cotterless45]

From what little I understand.

There is so much dust and stuff between us and the centre that it is a radio/infra red target.

However from a dark site at new Moon the Milky Way will just astound you in it's width , shape and brightness. It glows in Perseus and splits below Cygnus. You'll see the Cygnus dark areas and that's all before you use binoculars or a scope,

Nick.

[brantuk]

When we look up at the Milky way - because of the angle of the plane of the Milky Way relative to our position on Earth and the angle of the plane of the Solar System within our galaxy - we are actually looking outwards from the galaxy towards space.

The center of the Milky Way is towards Sagittarius which is in the south just below the horizon. Bits of the Milky Way towards it's center pop up above the horizon periodically in the shape of the Teapot asterism depending on the time of year.

That's why all the major observatories that take the amazing pictures we see are near, or south of, the equator. They are found high up on mountains to reduce the amount of atmosphere they have to peer through to get "less disturbed" views of the center of the galaxy. That's how I understand it - but I may be corrected lol. Hth

[Stu]

I think we are too close to properly see it clearly, and also from the northern hemisphere we don't see the brightest parts towards the centre.

However.... If you look at a photo of the whole sky, then to me it does look quite clear that the Milky Way is a disk, with a brighter nucleus to it. This is a picture taken off the web, I just googled 'milky way pictures'

Stu

[Charic]

If I'm reading correctly, you can see parts of the milky way as a "hazy band of white light" that is unresolved stars, which sounds similar to what I see of the Andromeda Galaxy.  It sounds like you can see the center as well (although not the very center that is the black hole).  I guess I really need to get out to dark skies with the moon below the horizon so I can have my mind blown .  I was just thinking since it's a lot closer than andromeda, the center would be a lot brighter and I should be able to see it even in not so dark skies.

I'm sure everyone would agree to that........the darker the skies the better. I can just make out M31, Andromeda from the back garden. If I go to my local dark site,  at  just under 5 miles in all directions from direct light sources,  M31 fills my 25mm lens, whereas from the garden I just see the smallest grey patch. The 25mm is great, but I needed wider, so purchased the 32mm lens. Again, from the garden, the image is still just a grey small patch, but with more space around it, due to the much wider view, but its going to blow me away, when I get to test the 32mm at the local  site, hopefully this week, but I'm planning a trip to the middle of nowhere soon. About 15 miles light free in all directions? There is a local club that has a reasonable  place to view, where a small amount of hill screening shields most city lights, but its a minimum of two people to attend the site, for security and H&S. Unfortunately, that's not convenient for me, if I just want to nip out when I want to. So have to find some other places, but you can easily get lost up here in the wilderness?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Dust is the reason we cannot see the galactic core. The effect is similar to that in edge-on spirals (just check out NGC 4565 or NGC 891) but a bit worse because we are in the thick dust lane. In the visible spectrum the extinction of light by dust is huge, but in the infrared we can penetrate much further

[Johnny4365]

Wait a few billion years and the center of  Andromeda  will be getting a lot brighter in the night sky.

But then things will get a bit messy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzgGhpAu2_I

[AndyWB]

I understood it to be that interstellar dust blocks much of the view - but as an additional note, Messier 24, the Sagittarius star cloud, is apparently a chance clear view 30,000ly in the general direction of the center of the galaxy:

http://messier.seds.org/m/m024.html