Spark and Perl go looking
Are we nearly at the dark place?
We arrived twenty minutes ago.
Now we stand still.
Standing?
That is not an activity.
Your eyes have to catch up.
…There.
Look up.
It has gone all milky.
Right across everything.
That is our own galaxy, seen from the inside.
It never went anywhere.
The lights at home just hide it.
Why is it milky?
Stars. Billions of them.
They are so far away that their light runs together into one glow.
And the stars you can see one by one are part of the Milky Way too. Those are just closer.
So there is one up in the sky and another one under my feet.
One, all around you.
…I am inside it, so it has to go right the way round me.
That band is the rest of it.
The rest of it, seen edgeways.
Then how do we know what it looks like from outside?
Nobody has been outside. We measured where the stars are, and worked the shape out from that.
Probably not — and that is the point.
Not from a town. You have to get out, away from the lights.
It is best in summer, high after midnight.
From anywhere, if your sky is dark enough.
Where to find the Milky Way, and when
Where the Earth is clear, it climbs high in the sky. The darker it gets, the lower it stays. Where it is black, it never comes up. No shading at all: it does not matter where you live.
What do I need to see the Milky Way?
It is so wide that neither the telescope nor binoculars can hold it all — your own eyes are the only thing that sees the whole of it.
Space
Eyes, binoculars, or telescope?
Read on
Go and look