In the real world news today Thurs, November 29 2018

[greybeard]

I wish I could see the Milky Way. Haven't been able to in years because of the light pollution.

"Progress" comes with a price. I haven't seen it on a nightly basis since I left West Texas and it's only on rare occasions here that I can ever see it..like after a hurricane when electricity is out for several counties nearby.
1/3 of the earth's population can't see it and the great majority of at least the most recent generation of Americans have never seen it.

As a kid, I thought I had seen a full sky of stars, but once I went into the military and saw the sky from far out at sea, I realized I had not.

 

[Latestarter]

Have to echo GB on his last. You haven't seen the heavens till you see them on a moonless clear night a thousand miles from land. I used to look at the sky from an aircraft carrier, miles away from any other light source. When steaming "blacked out" if there were no flight ops, you could go up on the flight deck and just lay on your back staring up. There were so many stars, the sky was almost solid white. I was out there at sea when the last real comet went by and there were published pictures showing the tail behind it, but you could barely see the comet or its tail on land. I did see it and some tail driving across the Arizona desert on I-10. But, out in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, the tail went almost entirely across the sky to the horizon. It was amazing to see.

 

[Bruce]

I know what you are saying but if it makes you feel any better, everything you see in the sky is the Milky Way, it is our galaxy.

OK, everything that isn't man made

 

[mystang89]

When my family and I first moved out here to the country the night sky looked like a deep velvet blanket with beautiful diamonds printed in it. Still looks that way, although I'm already seeing "progress" creeping its stingy little claws closer and closer to my heaven. We had the fortune of being able to see Mars a few nights ago when the moon was at its fullest. That was really awesome!

 

[greybeard]

I know what you are saying but if it makes you feel any better, everything you see in the sky is the Milky Way, it is our galaxy.

Not exactly true Bruce, as we can see objects, (some with just the naked eye), beyond our galaxy, and we don't even know for sure what our galaxy (Milky Way) actually looks like. All the pictures we see (like the one posted in your reply) are what we 'think' it looks like, based on nearby galaxies.
The nearest galaxy to us is Andromeda Galaxy (visible to us) and below Earth's equator, we can see the Magellanic spiral galaxies. (or Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies)
Both are in huge elliptical orbits around our own galaxy.
Andromeda Constellation tho, IS in and is part of the Milky Way.

With a relatively cheap backyard telescope, you can see many dozens of objects outside the Milky Way.
https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21049-127EQ-PowerSeeker-Telescope/dp/B0007UQNKY

 

[Latestarter]

Actually Bruce, that's not entirely true... Many of the "stars" we see are actually other galaxies, not stars from the Milky Way...

 

[Bruce]

OK, I will reword it. When you are looking at the night sky you are looking at or through the Milky Way

 

[greybeard]

In the real world news today, a 73rd anniversary.
Aug 6, 1945:

 

[goatgurl]

even though the dropping of that bomb hastened the end of the war I still find it hard to celebrate the anniversary of that event.

 

[greybeard]

Observe, not celebrate, tho I can easily remember my parents and uncles telling how it was indeed a celebratory event at the time.

When I was quite young (maybe 6-7 yrs old), I can remember being in my father's auto shop listening to men who had been back from war not much longer than I had been alive.