SEEING THE MILKY WAY FROM NEW YORK 
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 2003 May 25
 John Pazmino
 NYSkies
 john.pazmino{at}moondog.com

Introduction
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    It is still deemed impossible by some darksky leaders that to see 
the Milky Way from within the city limits of New York is a hopeless 
dream for some far off century. This is specially so as, with the 
reckless expansion of luminous graffiti in many other parts of the 
United States, the Milky Way is vanished from local skies. 
    But the brutal fact is that the City of New York is scoring 
occasional and repeated sightings of the Milky Way within its 
praecincts, and has been doing so for at least a full decade. To be 
honest, only the very brightest sectors of the Milky Way, those in the 
summer reach, are so far reported. There is no thought of soon seeing 
the entire band arching across the sky. 
    Furthermore, despite the slow steady improvement of the sky over 
New York, as yet the Milky Way is seen only from the outer boros, but 
not from Manhattan itself. In 2001 the first sighting was reported 
from the Bronx, the boro adjacent to Manhattan's northern frontier. 
    The ability to see, even if only in the brightest sections, any 
Milky Way from the 'poster town' of deep-seated light pollution is one 
of the crowning achievements of the planet's darksky movement. 

Milky Way seasons
 --------------- 
    The main season for seeing the Milky Way from New York opens on 
September 1st and runs thru December 31st of each year. The start in 
date catches the clearest nights of the year, by climatic records, in 
the City during September and October. At the same time, the summer 
Milky Way, with its brightest segments, is still in the evening sky. 
By mid and late December, the summer Milky Way is in the west, sliding 
steadily into evening twilight, and the usual cloudy winter weather 
sets in. 
    Milky Way sightings in this fall season were first logged 
in the late 1980s. Most years produced at least one sighting. Years 
ranged in score from zero, due to adverse weather, to four. 
    A second season opened in the early 1990s but is not well 
established. This runs in May and June, which can bring some extremely 
dark nights. The Milky Way seen then is also the summer reach, in the 
midnight to predawn hours. Sightings in this season are far fewer, 
likely due to the inconvenient hours of visibility. Most years failed 
to score a sighting and the record is still too scanty to set firm 
limits for this new spring season. 

What is visible
 -------------
    A common misinterpretation of the City's Milky Way reports is that 
in some fanciful manner the full allsky band shines out, like in a 
country sky. This is pure silliness [so far in this century]. What is 
reported is a patch here and there along the Milky Way zone, 
disjointed from constellation to constellation, like slightly brighter 
islands of sky. On a particular night of reports, the precise 
descriptions can vary widely due to local circumstances. Collectively, 
they confirm that in fact the sky was clear and dark enough to let the 
Milky Way come thru. 
    The general appearance is a swelling of brightness on the sky, 
fixed against the stars, and easily mistaken for a faint streak of 
cloud. On singular occasions some texture, like the edges of a cloud, 
are reported. 
    Sections noted over the years are in Cygnus, Scutum, M24, M8. The 
extreme north and south limits of all sightings are Cepheus-Cygnus 
to Scorpius-Sagittarius. Sometimes the Milky Way is discernible to a 
particular observer for only part of the night, then it recedes into 
the grayed skies to total invisibility. 
    The galactic center is not seen because of its low culmination 
altitude along the southern horizon. 
    Definitely such sightings would a laughable brag for a darksky 
location. By the same token [EEeek!] they represent a true miracle 
from New York, giving hope and inspiration to darksky advocates. 

Preparation
 ---------
    Because of all the extraneous illuminations in the sky over New 
York, it is very easy to mistake a 'normal' glow as a piece of Milky 
Way. Here are several factors to keep in mind about the Milky Way. It 
stretches along a fixed circle in the stars. The summer reach, the 
only one so far seen from New York, runs from the southern horizon in 
Scorpius, then northward into Sagittarius, Scutum, Aquila, Cygnus, and 
Cepheus. I miss out lateral extensions into other constellations. 
    You can check this on a staratlas which plots the galactic equator 
or centerline of the Milky Way. Define a belt, say, 10 degrees wide 
straddling this equator and that's the region of sky you have to look 
at. It can be marked out on a planisphere, so you can know where over 
your horizon it is sitting at the moment of observation. A bit of 
pencilled shading is all that's needed on the starplate. 

 Continued in next message.

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