Layman wants to learn

I know nothing about astronomy....so don't make fun.

Being an ardent admirer of the Universe around us, I have an
(embarassingly?) basic question.

When I gaze into the nightime sky from my suburban viewpoint with my naked
eye, I'm looking at just a very
small portion of the Milky way, correct?

No matter where I'm at...even the open skies of the Salt Lake desert (or
whatever)...with my naked eye, I'm still seeing only the milky way?

So, do the finest earthbound telescopes see beyond our own galaxy? If
so...how well?

Or has that only been something that Hubble has achieved?

Be nice.....this is "stars for dummies".

Thanks.

Welcome to the awesome world of Astronomy, as for your question, most of the
stars you see are within the Milkway Galaxy, BUT, at this time of year if
you are in a dark area, and you have a even a simple star map you can maybe
see M-31 the Andromeda Galaxy, which by normal eyesith is just a dim fussy
spot up there, but it's only about 2.5 million lightyears away from us too.
If you can get a pair of bino's, say 10 x 50's to start with, then you can
see it a bit better. In fact with a pair of bino's you can start to learn
the sky and depending on the time of year, you'll learn that we will see
other parts of our galaxy and you'll be able to see some of the sights. Then
someday you can move up to a Telescope and then the door will open even
wider.




--
The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond

Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Sidewalk Astronomy
www.sidewalkastronomy.info
The Church of Eternity
http://home.inreach.com/starlord/church/Eternity.html


"Michael" wrote in message
...
I know nothing about astronomy....so don't make fun.

Being an ardent admirer of the Universe around us, I have an
(embarassingly?) basic question.

When I gaze into the nightime sky from my suburban viewpoint with my naked
eye, I'm looking at just a very
small portion of the Milky way, correct?

No matter where I'm at...even the open skies of the Salt Lake desert (or
whatever)...with my naked eye, I'm still seeing only the milky way?

So, do the finest earthbound telescopes see beyond our own galaxy? If
so...how well?

Or has that only been something that Hubble has achieved?

Be nice.....this is "stars for dummies".

Thanks.

On Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:09:01 -0500, "Michael"
wrote:

I know nothing about astronomy....so don't make fun.

Being an ardent admirer of the Universe around us, I have an
(embarassingly?) basic question.

When I gaze into the nightime sky from my suburban viewpoint with my naked
eye, I'm looking at just a very
small portion of the Milky way, correct?

No matter where I'm at...even the open skies of the Salt Lake desert (or
whatever)...with my naked eye, I'm still seeing only the milky way?

So, do the finest earthbound telescopes see beyond our own galaxy? If
so...how well?

If your skies are dark enough to see the Andromeda galaxy, you are
looking beyond the Milky Way. If you go far enough south to see the
two Magellanic Clouds, you are looking beyond the Milky Way.

Telescopes took pictures of galaxies beyond the Milky Way long before
the Hubble telescope, or any other man made object, was put in orbit.


Remove del for email

In article ,
"Michael" wrote:

No matter where I'm at...even the open skies of the Salt Lake desert (or
whatever)...with my naked eye, I'm still seeing only the milky way?

Others have mentioned the M31 (AKA the Great Andromeda Galaxy) and the
Magellanic Clouds (a pair of much closer dwarf galaxies), which are
naked-eye objects under decent observing conditions. Given very dark
skies, a few more nearish galaxies are visible with binoculars.

However, almost all the individual stars you can see, even with a small
to medium-sized telescope, are in our own Galaxy. The only exceptions
are supernovae, which are often bright enough to be seen many millions
of light-years away. (For comparison, the Milky Way is a couple hundred
thousand LY across.)

So, do the finest earthbound telescopes see beyond our own galaxy? If
so...how well?

Yes, and very well. The largest ground-based telescopes are very large
indeed--sometimes comprising two separate instruments, like a giant pair
of binoculars--gathering a great deal of light and therefore capable of
detecting extremely faint objects. Moreover modern "adaptive optics" and
image-processing can compensate for atmospheric distortions to a fair
extent.

--
Odysseus