Which way to the center of the galaxy?

[rocketwatcher2001]

I live in Florida, near Cape Canaveral, and on a clear night I can see the Milky Way clouds, which if I understand correctly, is the dics of our galaxy. I understand that our solar system is in a spiral arm about 2/3's of the way out on the galactic disc. Something that's been puzzling me is that the Milky Way looks about the same no matter which month it is. I would think that when I am looking towards the center of the galaxy it would be brighter than during the months that I facing away from the center of the galaxy.<br /><br />What month is the center of the Milky Way directly overhead at midnight? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[3488]

Hi rocketwatcher2001,<br /><br />The Galactic Centre is in northern Sagittarius, near the borders with Ophiuchus & Scorpius.<br /><br />Sky location: RA 17h45m40.04s, Dec -29° 00' 28.1" (J2000 epoch).<br /><br />In fact, the Sun passes close by as seen from Earth just prior to the Winter Solstice,<br />so is currently in the Day Time sky. <br /><br />In June, the Galactic Centre lies due south at local midnight.<br /><br />So the answer is June, although it is viewable in the predawn skies from February<br />to the evening sky in November, although dependent on latitude.<br /><br />Florida is a long way south, so my answer is more or less correct as you have short twilights.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

To add to what Andrew said, the center of the Milky Way is never directly overhead from your location.<br /><br />At midnight in June, it is about 30 degrees above the southern Horizon, <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[garfieldthecat]

And to add a little more, the reason why the milky way isn't much more brilliant in the direction of its center (it is a bit: if you compare the milky way in Sagitarius and in Orion or Perseus, you'll see a strong difference of brilliance) is because there are a lot of galactic dust clouds hidding it from us. If those dust clouds were not there, I seem to remember the galactic center would seem to us as brilliant as the sun.

 

[shadow735]

A big Galactic dust buster could fix that problem..... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[themage]

The center is <i>that</i> way<br /><br /><i>*points to a part of the sky</i>

 

[vandivx]

as you say, because of those clouds the center of our galaxy (that is its general glow never mind some direct visibility of it) is effectively invisible for unaided sight <br /><br />I have book that dates from 1971 and it says that "it has been estimated that less than 0.01% of visible light can penetrate the interstellar haze between us and the centre of our Galaxy. Even in transparent space the light of individual objects 8,500 parsecs away would be greatly weakened by distance; and the heavy haze diminishing the apparent visible brightness by ten thousands times gives us no chance to get even a glimpse of the galactic nucleus from our cosmic station in the outskirts of the 'Orion arm' of our Galaxy."<br /><br />whew, makes one feel damn unprivileged in the grand scheme of things... the book also says that if we look into space above galactic disk some 20 degrees off galactic centre in infrared we can detect faint glow of the galactic bulge<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>