Astro Bob: Why we can't see the Milky Way in spring

Astro Bob: Why we can't see the Milky Way in spring

If you've been out stargazing on any recent moonless evening, you may have wondered why the Milky Way is absent. Even from the countryside, you'd be hard-pressed to find the familiar band of concentrated starlight sometimes mistaken for clouds. The Milky Way is a perspective effect. Our galaxy, also called the Milky Way, is large but relatively flat. The sun and planets are located within that plane. When we gaze through it, stars near and far …