Starship Asterisk*

Hello All

I was just reading the APOD

Qev was right

quote from the apod
"The long exposure used to create the above photograph makes the light from the left, reflected from Phoenix, Arizona, USA, appear like a sunset. Far in the distance, however, are star clouds from the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy. Billions of stars like our Sun live there, circling our Galactic center every 200 million years"

You're right. At the end of November (22nd) thru the middle of December (21st) the sun is in the middle of the constellation Sagittarius so it isn't visible at night.

Now that I think about it, it may be that people in Minnesotan (where I live) cannot see the center (too far north).

I've seen the Milky Way before - I often stay up late when I'm at the cabin just to stare at the band that stretches accross the sky.

The reason I brought this up is that I once visited the Grand Canyon (Arizona), and went to the park after midnight on a cloudless, moonless night. I did not see the big lump that is the Milky Way's center (like in the photo). I DID see a big arm of the Milky Way stretch across the sky...

Anyway, it may also be that the center of our galaxy is not visible in AZ during the time of year in which I visited the Grand Canyon (November).

Thanks for the responses...

Our Galactic center does lie in the constellation Sagittarius. Eventually, every constellation that is part of the Zodiac, passes behind the sun (during the month of its rule) and is as such visible (though not at that particular time) to any part of the world that can see the sun. The constellation Sagittarius of the Zodiac is best viewed when it is in opposition to the sun, 6 months after the month pases that is ruled by Sagittarius. Example Scorpio is October 22? thru November 20? and is therefore high in the sky at midnight around May 8th or so.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/ ... image.html

You can indeed see the Milky Way from the Northern Hemisphere.

The Magellanic Clouds, on the other hand, are only visible from the Southern Hemisphere...perhaps that was what you were thinking of, cmlmsp?

I believe the center of the galaxy lies in the direction of the constellation Saggitarius, which would imply that it should be visible from the northern hemisphere, though I could be wrong on this.

Regarding the APoD image you linked to, I don't believe they were referring to the image showing the part of the sky containing the galactic center, but simply one part of the Milky Way, all of which circles the center of the galaxy.

Umm... I read somewhere that the Milky Way galaxy (at least, the center of it, the part in this picture) can only be seen in the southern hemisphere. Am I wrong, or is this picture not from Arizona?

Picture of the day 24 April 2006:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060424.html