Can you see the Milky Way without a telescope?

Absolutely you can. What you described is the milky way.

Definitely.

Yes, you can. In certain places, you can see it weaving across the sky. In Montana, it was a thick, clear ribbon – and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in my life.

Technically, you can’t see anything but the milky way.

Also technically, we, um, live, in the Milky Way.

Depends where you are.

In the city you may never notice. In the wilderness you can almost read by it, it’s stunning.

Yes, that is the milky way. It is remarkable to see when you grew up in the City.

Isn’t all We see when when we look up the sky?

Most of what we see is the Milky Way.

All the individual stars we see with our eyes are in the Milky Way, our galaxy. We can see other galaxies outside the Milky way, but they look like stars or clouds.

It wasn’t until the 1920s that people figured out the Milky Way was just one galaxy among billions.

All distinct stars that we can see with the naked eye are part of the milky way galaxy. But what people usually mean when they talk about “seeing the milky way” in the sky is looking into the plane of the galaxy. We live near the edge of the galaxy so the most star-dense view is seen by looking towards the center of the galaxy, where most stars lie. This area is so star-dense that it can just appear as a large, faintly glowing cloud, rather than distinct stars. Very beautiful, and easy to see with the naked eye if there isn’t much light pollution around.

You just did and probably have many times over. You barely need to get 10 miles out of town to bet the full on view of the milky way on a clear night of course.

That is the Milky Way. The next challenge for you is to find our sister galaxy, Andromeda.

You can see that with naked eye but it is much better with binoculars. It was only 85 year ago that Hubble figured out it was another galaxy outside our own. Before that, mankind thought there was only one galaxy. Now we know there are billions. Awesome.

@worriedguy is Andromeda near any particular group of stars? (ie. just right of the big dipper)

Once you get away from the light polution of the city, you can see a wide river of stars stretching from horizon to horizon. This, and the bright, electric-blue effervescence of a bow wave and trailing wake make saltwater sailing on a black, moonless night unforgettable.

What you described in you question is the Milky Way.

I can see the Andromeda galaxy (M 31) easily with the naked eye when I have clear skies. But it is not visible all year long.

Here, at latitude c.42˚ N, I see it best in the late fall, all winter and early spring. Less craning of the neck. Once you spot it with your eyes, then it is easy to see with a pair of proper binoculars (7 or 8 magnification and a large field-of-view), depending on the strength of your wrists or your willingness to use a tripod.

Here’s the road map. Andromeda

What you were seeing is definitely the Milky Way. Many of the individual stars we see are part of our galaxy, and just happen to be in close proximity to us. But the bulk of the Milky Way doesn’t look like individual stars to the naked eye. Instead, it appears rather like a diaphanous stripe of brighter sky running from horizon to horizon.

That may be why some insist it can’t be seen with the naked eye. You need a telescope to see that this band of light is a river of billions of individual stars and even then there are clouds of dust lit by stars, making parts of it still live beautifully up to its name.

@ETpro Pretty sure there’s just one horizon.

“Eastern horizon”, “western horizon”, etc are common terms.

@Zyx Ha! Cute, but I hope you know I was speaking in the terms @jaytkay mentions.

@Carly I use the zig-zag patten of Cassiopeia (it looks like a “W” with one lazy side.) to point the way. The left side of the “w” points close to Andromeda about one full “W” distance past the right side of the “w” It will be a smudge in the sky.

Everything you have ever seen in the night sky has been in our own neighborhood in our own galaxy.You can see about 150–300 light years away naked eye. Binoculars will push that to 1000 light years. A typical galaxy is 100,000 light years across.
When you finally catch Andromeda you will be looking at light that has traveled 2.5 million years to reach your eye! Fantastic. Andromeda is roughly the same size as our galaxy.

I live at a similar latitude as @gailcalled and can only see it late fall early winter on moonless nights..

I’ve often walk into the garage wall while trying to walk to the house and look up at the sky at the same time to see it… haven’t learnt to to stop walking and just look up yet obviously :-)

It’s almost 11 pm and was able to see Andromeda in the NE sky about 45 degrees elevation. I’m at 43 deg latitude.

@worriedguy; Unfortunately, my view to the NE is obstructed by tall white pines and maples. The house is sited on a hill so I look up into the trees. Anything at elevation 45˚ in that direction is therefore blocked. Plus, it is overcast here.

(What’s your longitude? I’m at -73.5.)

I’m at -77.7. Gorgeous night.

I think you guys might find this handy for finding the location of things in the sky from where you are…

The milky way is the band of denser stars across the sky. Think of it this way. Our solar system is one of many in a disc-shaped galaxy. It has a thick core, and spreads out more thinly towards the edge. What we call the “milky way” is simply us looking at this galactic disc through the thickest part towards the centre, where the stars are the most dense.

Check this video out, apparently in South Dakota you could see the Milky Way in a beautiful manner.