Seeing the Milky Way
Can you see the Milky Way at night where you live?
I haven't seen it in the Detroit metropolitan area where I live since the mid-1980s. I am in Swat Pakistan now and still can't see it from here, which surprises me. I didn't think light pollution would be that bad. The sky looks about the same. I could see oodles more stars when I was a child. I am wondering how much diminishing eyesight may be contributing to this experience too.
~* astralsilky
Each essence is a separate glass,
Through which Sun of Being’s Light is passed,
Each tinted fragment sparkles with the Sun,
A thousand colors, but the Light is One.
Jami, 15th c. Persian Poet
Post types & fully individuated before 2012 ...
btw. The shape of the Milky Way is warped, it's not symmetric in any direction, according to latest astronomical measurements.
Picture of the Milky Way
The cornea tends to darken and yellow with age (like the rest of one's skin) and the pupil can no longer open to a youthful 7 mm diameter, so the light losses can be on the order of 30-50% in very old eyes. This is approximately equal to one magnitude in stellar intensities, so your night sky viewing would be reduced from being able to see 6.5 or 7th magnitude stars to being able to see 5.5 to 6th magnitude stars.
The problem with not being able to see the Milky Way is 99% from light pollution.
Last edited by Adam Strange; 02-16-2019 at 07:33 PM.
Forgot to answer the question.
No, I can't. The light pollution is too high to see more than the brightest stars in the sky. We got new streetlights that have a stronger downward directional beam, but they emit still too much diffused light nearby.
I live in the city now so no I can't
A friend of mine has a house on an island in a rural area. We went there last November, late evening, when it was already really dark. He has a boat in the nearest village, and then it's only about 20 min by boat off the coast. When we were almost there the waves were too big and we couldn't see anything. We were about too lose control over the boat so we had to turn around. It was a bit scary. But the milky way was above us.
The decisive thing is not the reality of the object, but the reality of the subjective factor, i.e. the primordial images, which in their totality represent a psychic mirror-world. It is a mirror, however, with the peculiar capacity of representing the present contents of consciousness not in their known and customary form but in a certain sense sub specie aeternitatis, somewhat as a million-year old consciousness might see them.
(Jung on Si)
Aren't we inside of the milky way? Thus, we always see it by looking at nearby stars?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology
An optimist - does not get discouraged under any circumstances. Life upheavals and stressful events only toughen him and make more confident. He likes to laugh and entertain people. Enters contact with someone by involving him with a humorous remark. His humor is often sly and contain hints and double meanings. Easily enters into arguments and bets, especially if he is challenged. When arguing his points is often ironic, ridicules the views of his opponent. His irritability and hot temper may be unpleasant to others. However, he himself is not perceptive of this and believes that he is simply exchanging opinions.
http://www.wikisocion.net/en/index.php?title=LIE_Profile_by_Gulenko
I can see a bit of it sometimes.
When I lived way up north, there was no light pollution for about 200kms in any direction.
You could see the most crystal clear skies. It was very beautiful. I used to take starmaps, phone app, or something like that, and lay on the Quad and look up at the night sky for hours.
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