whats out there?

[Bufferz]

Right, this may sound daft, but we see the constellations in the night sky, etc because we move around the sun, and the solar system moves around within the milky way - so as the MW rotates, surely new objects must be seen that will not have before, or at least for a long time.......if so, then what is there to look forward to coming up?

[thing]

Er......it takes around 260 million years for the galaxy to rotate, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for stuff to change.............

[gurney]

Yeah, in terms of what's out there and what you can see - the only changes happening are really very small. Sadly we're not going on a guided tour of the universe each year or anything like that.

The changes are primarily very local to us, with the movement of objects in the solar system. There are more distant objects changing continuously like the orbits of binary star systems, and variable stars, but in real terms these are subtle effects and pretty painstaking to observe.

The position of stars, consteallations and galaxies are essentially static over the course of any one person's lifetime.

However, there are from time to time enormous events such as supernovae, which change the landscape somewhat, although perhaps in the terms you were thinking of, still not exactly scene shifting too much.

[Sam]

Nicely said Gurney!

It's an interesting question. There was a post a while ago that linked to a picture of the big dipper showing how it has changed over the last few thousand years - in it's appearance to us.

[Vega]

Yup.. The stars stay exactly the same at any one time of the year (in our lifetime that is). Once you've been playing this game for a while you begin to recognise the distinctive look of the sky to the time of year. Tis only the moon, planets, comets and asteroids that change regularly. Of course a supernova in the MW is an exception which would be awesome.. I'm still waiting {looks at watch}

Following on from lightbucket's post, the next pole star will be Vega :shock:

Matt

[DanDare]

...

Yup.. The stars stay exactly the same at any one time of the year (in our lifetime that is). Once you've been playing this game for a while you begin to recognise the distinctive look of the sky to the time of year.

.....and good job too as I have enough trouble as it is finding my way around the skies