When was the first time you saw the Milky Way?

[pvaz]

I must have drink too much! I read "last" instead of "first"!

Well, I thing my 1st time was while camping out with the scouts, I did learn a bit of orientation back then and it included some basic star knowledge. I had probably seen it before but thats the first memory that pops to mind.

[Wobbly Bob]

My first concsious sight of the milky way was a stunning expieriance. We ived in Australia in the late 60's and one day some guys offered to take me to the start of the duck shooting season on the Victoria / NSW border. After a couple of hours drive we arrived about 8pm and unloaded the obligatory SLABS of beer. well after a few more hours sitting in the truck drinking beer, we dicided to lay on the ground and get some kip before the 6am start, I got out of the truck and WOW, the milky way was alive with zilions of stars and colour, I to will never forget that night.

OK we have seen the milky way at Kelling Heath and Salisbury, but nothing compared to that night in Aus.

[AndyC]

Only think I've 'really' clearly seen it twice, both about 8 years ago. The first walking along a Cretan beach after dinner at midnight. The second was Christmas Eve after a large pub dinner and too much wine in a tiny Cotswold village. Trying to walk back up the hill whilst admiring it was difficult but also hilariously funny at the time

Andy

[Leegsi]

Mine was at the Salisbury star party last year.

I just sat in my chair and was looking up for about 20 minutes just taking it in.

It was then I 'really' knew what dark skys looked like.

[paulhereford]

Good evening all,

I'm returning to astronomy for want of a better way of putting it. I was born in 1965 and remember regularly marvelling at the skies as a kid during night time fishing and camping trips around Herefordshire. I remember what must have been the Milky Way back then around 1975 - 1985.

I have always had a dormant interest in astronomy / stargazing, whatever we want to call it, and in the last 6 months my dormant interest has come alive and most evenings, nights and early mornings I am now out in the garden gazing upwards trying to relearn th night sky....sometimes with a small pair of binoculars but hopefully soon with a new Starwatcher scope!

I am sure that what I have seen overhead on clear nights particularly leading up to christmas was the Milky Way....a thin band running east to west. Spectacular when viewed through a infrared night scope. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I live 5 miles SE of Hereford by the way.

[Ogri]

I think it was in the late 1950's. It was in the village shop, and they were next to the Mars bars and Milky Bar's.

At the time there was only one streetlight in the village (the railway station still used oil lamps) and that had a white bulb in it.

Being rural, there was no light pollution other than that 1 streetlight bulb (and I think it went out about 10:00pm every night).

My home is still like that, can't see any lights at night, closest neighbour is over a half mile away over the hill, but without the street light.

Until the forest was harvested, couldn't even see any lights in the distance.

Much of Cardiganshire (where I live now) didn't even have mains electricity until into the 1960's. Still places don't have it, where it is too expensive to put it in (and it's far too expensive to run now as well. I produced my own for years at better than 1/5th the cost of the grid, which doesn't even begin to add up - I shouldn't be able to begin to compete with bulk generating prices).

Who needs TV when all that stuff in the sky just leaps out at you? It doesn't even really get dark. It's rather magical walking the Countryside at night under the heavens. I used to do 15 - 20 miles a night across fields trying to keep the foxes down a bit for the neighbours, and never needed a streetlight to see anything.

[Beulah]

I think it was in the late 1950's. It was in the village shop, and they were next to the Mars bars and Milky Bar's.

At the time there was only one streetlight in the village (the railway station still used oil lamps) and that had a white bulb in it.

Being rural, there was no light pollution other than that 1 streetlight bulb (and I think it went out about 10:00pm every night).

My home is still like that, can't see any lights at night, closest neighbour is over a half mile away over the hill, but without the street light.

Until the forest was harvested, couldn't even see any lights in the distance.

Much of Cardiganshire (where I live now) didn't even have mains electricity until into the 1960's. Still places don't have it, where it is too expensive to put it in (and it's far too expensive to run now as well. I produced my own for years at better than 1/5th the cost of the grid, which doesn't even begin to add up - I shouldn't be able to begin to compete with bulk generating prices).

Who needs TV when all that stuff in the sky just leaps out at you? It doesn't even really get dark. It's rather magical walking the Countryside at night under the heavens. I used to do 15 - 20 miles a night across fields trying to keep the foxes down a bit for the neighbours, and never needed a streetlight to see anything.

What a beautful piece of reading. I totally concur with the night-time walk.

You fancifully wonder if street lighting is a conspiracy, to force people to watch mindless TV...

*presses "submit reply" and sits on hands*

[floyd fan]

Cant remember the first time, I grew up in the 60's when light polution wasnt so bad, always remember being facinated by the stars as a kid. I go camping in Scotland most summers and quite often have the treat of seeing the milky way but last week I had the opportunity to see the night sky from Death Valley. There where so many stars visable to the naked eye I found it hard to pick out the constalations. Absolutly the most thrilling sight I have seen in a long time (dont tell me wife I said that). Annoyingly there was a visable light dome over Las Vegas which was 150 miles away over a mountain range.

Cheers ... FF ...

[glowjet]

Sea Trout fishing at night on the river Towy in the Black Mountains area of Wales, near a small place called Rhandir Muin ( land of which part is lead ) rough translation, the old lead mining district area, The sky was so black the Milky Way was illuminated like a bright ribbon and stars, millions of em!. I was in my early twenties and shall never forget it, never seen a sky like it since.

John.

[laser_jock99]

I think it was in the late 1950's. It was in the village shop, and they were next to the Mars bars and Milky Bar's.

At the time there was only one streetlight in the village (the railway station still used oil lamps) and that had a white bulb in it.

Being rural, there was no light pollution other than that 1 streetlight bulb (and I think it went out about 10:00pm every night).

My home is still like that, can't see any lights at night, closest neighbour is over a half mile away over the hill, but without the street light.

Until the forest was harvested, couldn't even see any lights in the distance.

Much of Cardiganshire (where I live now) didn't even have mains electricity until into the 1960's. Still places don't have it, where it is too expensive to put it in (and it's far too expensive to run now as well. I produced my own for years at better than 1/5th the cost of the grid, which doesn't even begin to add up - I shouldn't be able to begin to compete with bulk generating prices).

Who needs TV when all that stuff in the sky just leaps out at you? It doesn't even really get dark. It's rather magical walking the Countryside at night under the heavens. I used to do 15 - 20 miles a night across fields trying to keep the foxes down a bit for the neighbours, and never needed a streetlight to see anything.

Couldn't agree more with your post. We live in rural Powys and none of our neigbours neither needs or wants any form of street lighting. Large tracts of land in the Cambrian Mountains are free of any development - very few farmsteads and no villages. The result is a reasonable level of sky darkness and a good view of the Milky Way. You can easily walk to the pub a mile away in the dark without a torch (unless the weather's really foul!!). If the moon's out you feel like you could read a newspaper! I think as a society we've largely deluded ourselves we need all this lighting?

Going back to the OP....I can clearly remember the most brilliant clear nights whilst on camping holidays on the Channel Islands in the early 1970's. Also the glow worms were really plentifull- haven't seen a glow worm for years.......

Best view I've ever seen though was from a yacht while sailing across the Chanel on a night passage from the Scilly Isles to Jersey. About halfway across and 50 miles from nearest land the Milky Way went down to the horizon. Then the wind dropped off to nothing and we had to pull down the sails and put the engine on to make progress. In the calm sea water the churning of the prop the left a long wake of bioluminescence behind the yacht. Nature at it's most magical.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I cannot remember the exact date, but I saw it several times in my early teens (early to mid 70s) either on holiday or from my parent's garden (just outside a village south of the city of Groningen). The best view I ever had was from the Negev desert in 1980. I can still see it (faintly) from my back garden.

[michigoose]

When: December 1972

Where: Sitting on an almost empty beach, looking out over the Indian Ocean....

Each day towards evening a dozen or so people would gradually gather to sit on the beach and watch the sailboats of the local fishermen come in to unload their catch, silhouetted against a beautiful setting sun on the western horizon. Like the fishermen, we all slept on the beach, under the palm trees.

We'd sometimes paddle in the shallows and marvel at the tiny flecks of phosphorescent light in the surf. Later we'd stroll over to the tiny, palm thatched beach cafe, almost hidden among the palms and holding only about half a dozen small tables and rickety chairs. We'd while away the evenings writing, talking, drinking fresh lime juice and swapping travellers info.

One evening I happened to look up and realised that a band of the sky straight above was so full of stars it could only be the milky way.

I returned a year later and found to my horror that, where there had only been a few Portugese style bungalows hidden among the palm trees, and water drawn from one of the local wells, there was now a neon lit hotel, probably with running 'hot & cold'. It was the day Paradise put up a parking lot and I've never returned since.

Googled images of Baga Beach, Goa, now show no more than rows and rows of sun loungers with scarcely a palm tree visible. Brings tears to my eyes. Here are then and now photos.

[solarwallace]

Saw it about 2 weeks ago for the first time. I was at a campsite near Haltwhistle in the north of England. Got up in the middle of the night and there it was. More stars than I've ever seen. Had to go back to bed though as I had 80 miles to ride on a bike the next day for charity

Steve

[LukeSkywatcher]

The 1st and only time i saw the MW was a couple of yrs ago while i was at a cousins wedding. The wedding reception was held in a 5* golf club/hotel about 50 miles from Dublin in the middle of the Wicklow mountains.

At about 11pm i went outside for some air and a cigarette...............and i went right bang into the middle of the green.

Thats when i saw it. An arc of light/stars stretching from horizon to horizon.

[richbyers]

im in the lake district so its not too hard to see it here, i musta been 10 or so

rich

[Beulah]

When: December 1972

Where: Sitting on an almost empty beach, looking out over the Indian Ocean....

Each day towards evening a dozen or so people would gradually gather to sit on the beach and watch the sailboats of the local fishermen come in to unload their catch, silhouetted against a beautiful setting sun on the western horizon. Like the fishermen, we all slept on the beach, under the palm trees.

We'd sometimes paddle in the shallows and marvel at the tiny flecks of phosphorescent light in the surf. Later we'd stroll over to the tiny, palm thatched beach cafe, almost hidden among the palms and holding only about half a dozen small tables and rickety chairs. We'd while away the evenings writing, talking, drinking fresh lime juice and swapping travellers info.

One evening I happened to look up and realised that a band of the sky straight above was so full of stars it could only be the milky way.

I returned a year later and found to my horror that, where there had only been a few Portugese style bungalows hidden among the palm trees, and water drawn from one of the local wells, there was now a neon lit hotel, probably with running 'hot & cold'. It was the day Paradise put up a parking lot and I've never returned since.

Googled images of Baga Beach, Goa, now show no more than rows and rows of sun loungers with scarcely a palm tree visible. Brings tears to my eyes. Here are then and now photos.

That's a really beautiful story with a very tragic ending, Michigoose.

It's unbelievable that nature can be corrupted so much.

[PeterM]

First time I saw it properly was when I was around 12 years old (must have been 1983). I was on a family holiday in Italy staying with some relatives in a small mountain village in the north (Cereglio, population 200 in the summer and around 700m above sea level). The local family nightspot was right on the edge of the village, about 10 minutes along a track and there was more-or-less no street lighting. We were heading off for home at around midnight and I remember being really excited because the track was lined with fireflies. We crested a hill and I took a glance at the sky and saw the most intense cloud of light reaching up and seemingly stretching from horizon to horizon. It was literally breath-taking and seemed so close it was almost like I could reach out and touch it.

[SkyHermit]

First time for me was 2007. Sure I must have seen it before but it was only three years ago that I realised what I was looking at, so I guess anything before that hardly counts.

[Daniel-K]

first time i saw the milky way was in south france when i was 13/14 (22 now) i have never seen it agen despite going south wales last week to see it (bad weather) but the pictuer is still in my head and i wont stop traveling till i see it agen

[Catanonia]

mmmm, to be totally accurate, about 2 years ago when I was superbike racing at cadwell park lincolnshire. In the middle of nowhere and it was brilliant. My girlfriend, Abby, now my wife was amazed too and always remembers it. Great as she sees why i spend on the hobby.

Nowadays, I can see it from my back yard on a good clear night and I live about 2 miles from Jct 17 of the M6 Sandbach velieve it or not.

So in last year since I have been looking, seen it properly about 5 times.

[george7378]

For me, I have seen the small brightening from many places like my own dark back yard, and I will be observing it a lot throughout the Summer months, but the first and best sighting I truly remember was laying on a tropical beach in the Maldives and seeing an amazing spill of stars. It's looking back now that makes me regret that I was only small, and didn't know a thing about it!