possible to see milkyway in suburbs with 15x70's?

[joshyouarebaker]

i understand that after being outside a while, pupils dilate and we gain a higher sensitivity to view fainter objects in the sky. If i were to be outside for an hour or so, at around midnight and in the suburbs of a city, is the milky way quite easy to spot? Also, if i were to use my 15x70's, would it enhance my view of the milyway/make it easier to detect?

[John]

The binoculars will show some of the star clouds of the Milky Way in Cygnus for example but it's such a large extended object that the naked eye is, in my opinion, by far the best way to see it. On a dark night from my back garden I can see it extending all the way through Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Cygnus and Aquilla with noticeable dark rifts in the latter 2 constellations. Thats just too much sky for binoculars to cover although these new and rather innovative ultra widefield ones from Vixen might help:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen-binoculars/vixen-sg21x42-widefield-binoculars.html

[joshyouarebaker]

Thanks John. Are you in the suburbs also?

[John]

Thanks John. Are you in the suburbs also?

I live on the edge of a town with some light pollution to the N and SW, neighbours lights and a couple of street lights. It's not too bad in some directions and when objects get high in the sky. So moderately light polluted I'd say.

[ronin]

A lot will depend on what you mean by "See the Milky Way."

If sort of normal for suburbs I would expect that you will be able to make out the general band of the milky way in areas like Cassiopeia, Cygnus etc. However it will not cut a band across the sky.

Get somewhere dark - as in afraid to take a step since you cannot see the ground - then look up and you will hurt your neck from staring at the sky so much.

I would have said that you need dark skies to see the Milky Way, especially if you are thinking of any detail within it, but in more light polluted skies you should be able to make out the Milky Way. The difference is the degree of detail.

[AndyWB]

Last August I "saw" (well, could faintly make out) the Milky Way and Cygnus Rift during the Perseids. This was from within a mile and a half of the middle of Reading, so very light polluted - but I think it was unusually transparent that night.

However, Ronin is right - get somewhere dark and you can see the Milky way running from horizon to horizon. 

I think it's more about contrast than dark adaption of your eyes (though you do need that). Near a town the light will bounce back down from anything in the atmosphere and can just drown the Milky Way out. 

To see what I mean, if you're near a town, pay attention the next time the clouds roll it. I usually notice the clouds when I'm at home when it suddenly gets brighter - and then the view through the scope vanishes.

[dick_dangerous]

In the suburbs the Milky Way can be dimly visible on exceptional nights, but it more insinuates itself out of the sky rather than standing out.

Middle of Exmoor is a good place to try and see it!

DD

[jabeoo1]

I am in the suburbs of Bristol. After one year in that location I have had one night where I could detect a slight hint of the hazy stripe accross the sky with the naked eye, but it was nothing much to write home about. It must have been exceptional seeing with minimal light scatter to occur and rare too. Binoculars will show increased stellar density within the galactic plane. A nice thing to do to illustrate this to yourself is to compare the star fields above and below the galactic plane using your binoculars and the difference is remarkable even from light polluted locations. The first time I was scanning the heavens and stumbled apon Perseus it proved a point of reference to me as to what looking into the cross section of the galactic plane actually is. Cygnus is a jaw dropper to scan around. 10x50's will offer you more field of view for the job in hand but a dark sky and your own x1 wide field eye balls are the best for this huge expanse. Those Vixen SG 2.1x42 as mentioned already are proving their worth. They are opera glasses on steroids but like anything will benefit from clear and dark skies. They can fit the Plough in the field of view but to me it is sharp accross maybe 60% of that field. For scanning they are fantastic to gain a few magnitudes deeper over naked eye, but for pin point sharpness accross the field of view nothing beats the naked eye.

[spaceboy]

If you go out to a dark site late September the milky way still sits favourably in the sky and the days are shorter. Once you get familiar with the constellations the milky way passes through then you will find that on nights of good transparency. I'm 6 miles out from Birmingham city centre and have St lights galore surrounding my garden yet there have been nights the sky is playing ball and I can pick out the milky way along with M31 with relative ease.

[spaceboy]

Just for the record the milky way was just visible from my way last night. The seeing and transparency was way above average and the views so good that I had a rest from viewing dso's in the eyepiece and lay down for 1/2 hour amazed at how many stars were visible through Cygnus.

[cotterless45]

That's the superb Cygnus star fields. A scan with binoculars will reward with many clusters here. If you can get away from light pollution, the dark sky and glowing tortuous Milky Way will blow you away, Nick.