Starship Asterisk*

I have just moved to New Zealand, and regularly have the pleasure of seeing the Milky Way and her satellite galaxies in the night sky - something not possible from the UK.

It got me wondering - given that the Magellanic Clouds are clearly off-set to the plane of the Milky Way and are clearly visible despite being much smaller than our own galaxy, how would our own galaxy appear to an observer on a planet from within either of the Clouds (or indeed any of the many other satellite galaxies)?

It is assumed that all other things are equal - observer is able to study the sky as we do from the ground and in visible light etc.

My guess is that we would see an awesome spectacle - a spiral galaxy from an oblique angle visible to the naked eye that is perhaps some ten times (or more!) bigger than how we perceive the Clouds. Would it be as amazing as seeing a bright comet such as McNaught or Hale-Bopp?

Or would it be something that is just taken for granted by the majority of observers in much the same way as the Moon or Sun, because it would always be visible every cloudless night and day?

Has anybody seen any artists impressions of what such a spectacle may look like?

Cheers
Simon

there were few on apod. you can get a picture you want with some simulators, but that would be nothing that spectacular.

here is a prior thread on this same subject
http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... =milky+lmc