Watching at the Milky Way in a clear, dark night should be a compulsory activity for all of us as kids, and perhaps as adults too. Certainly, many politicians could benefit from it: they tend to forget that we are all in the same boat, the same planet, and it is a very fragile one. Looking at those clouds formed by miriads of stars is just looking outside from our home. Our atmosphere is like the protective glass of the window, sometimes a bit dirty for either human or natural causes, that separates us from the real world outside. What is outside is a hostile environment, where time and space are so vastly different from our human experience that frightens us because we cannot understand it. But we try, don't we? We look outside and see that we are engulfed in a huge disk of stars and gas with a monster black hole in the center (well, that we don't see directly, but now we know very well it is there). This huge disk that the light takes about 100000 years to cross is a fantastic view in summer nights, when we are faced, after dusk, with the center of the Galaxy. Approaching winter we are looking at teh other side, away from the center, but still he view is amazing. Of course we need a dark location: light pollution has stolen the view of our home Galaxy, and our generation is the first one that has grown, on average, withouth seeing the Milky Way and the rest of the starry sky except on a few occasions. Sad privilege. Anyway, here I attach a photo of the Milky Way taken with a normal camera this past summer. Technical details below.

Each frame: total exposure of approx 1 hour in 4 minute subs
Location: Villagonzalo Pedernales, Burgos
Camera: Canon 40D on a Teegul Skypatrol II mount
Lens: Canon 85mm at f/4,5
Calibrated and stacked with Deep Sky Stacker. Processed with Pixinsight Core.
This is how we would see the Milky Way under ideal conditions, if our eyes were much more sensitive to light! There is no magnification in this view. Constellation Sagittarius is in the lower half, Serpends and Scutum above.
If you don't mind, I'm sure you will not, I'll practice my English from time to time with you.
ResponderEliminarIn reality, I must confess the reason that pushed me to answer stand in the comparison you did between the spaceship window and the Earth atmosphere, add a bit of romantic vision to a scientific theme that really catched me! It's so sad that light pollution strongly veil this "magic" window.
By the way, it's a very nice photo!
Stefano