Images of the Milky Way

[keef_uk]

Hello,

How can we take pictures of the Milky way when we are inside it?

[SteveL]

How can you take pictures of your house when you are inside it? Because you are in it, doesnt mean you cant see it... we just see it from the inside.

[keef_uk]

OK I understand that, so are you saying that all the 'pictures' of the whole milky way are conceptual art based on what we know from our small corner?

[SteveL]

Ah, thats not what you specifically asked first time... if its an image of the whole of our galaxy looking at it from the outside, then yes, its an artistic impression from the best data available to us. When you said "How can we take pictures of the Milky way", that implied pointing a camera at the sky.

[keef_uk]

My mistake on wording! (reading it back it does sound a bit dumb!)

[Rick88]

Aside from what SteveL said, I believe they also use the Andromeda galaxy as a "model" for our own galaxy. The Andromeda galaxy is our neighbouring galaxy, so very "close" to us and quite similar in structure.

This makes it a very good model for reproducing our Milky Way.

[Midpoint]

I could be wrong, but I thought one of the talks at Astrofest on Saturday covered this and seemed to indicate that our galaxy would probably be a bit unusual looking. I wish I could remember the description in more detail now.

[Rick88]

Let us know if you remember; there are many types of weird-looking galaxies