Greetings Fellow Stargazers!
I have a question...

First please forgive any mistaken terminology's here...I -think- I got everything correct, but obviously I'm still new at this so please bear with me :-).

Ok, assuming a person has a strong enough, big enough telescope and ideal viewing conditions, etc., one can see other spiral galaxies similar to our own such as M100, M51, M61, M88, etc. (yes I picked up a Messier chart). At the center of these types of galaxies one can see a "Galactic core", or the section of that given universe that has the densest population of stars....it appears as the big bright ball of light at the center of these galaxies.

Now, the question is; why can't we see our own galactic core? I understand we're out in the "burbs" of the Milky Way...one of the outer extensions of our galaxy, but if you can see the center of other galaxies that are numourous light years away, one would think that seeing the center of our own galaxy would be even easier if not a piece of cake....so where is it? Is it because I'm in the wrong hemisphere of the planet (Northern)? Am I just looking in the wrong place? A collection of stars that large should be visable -somewhere-! What am I missing here?

Sorry if this came off as a rant (LOL). I was sitting here watching an old PBS series called "Mysteries in Deep Space" when I had this sudden realization that I still don't know my way around our own galactic neighborhood yet :-). I kinda know where the corner store is, but absolutely no clue where "downtown" is located. I'm sure this probably seems like a dumb question to more then a few of you.

As always, I thank you for your collective wisdom and patience!
Bright Blessings & Gentle Breezes,
Jim

It's in the constellation of Sagittarius and is in the southeast at 4 to 5 AM. I sort of remember you being in Ohio so Sagittarius will be about 10-15 degrees off the horizon.

The reason you can't see it is dust and gas clouds. There is a lot of light-absorbing material between here and the center of our galaxy, and since we're looking into the center "edge on" it's like the difference of driving through fog (the accumulated mist makes seeing distant objects difficult) and looking up through a thin layer of the fog and seeing stars (seeing a distant galaxy from an "overhead" view and looking through a very thin layer of dust and gas clouds).

If it's really dark and no Moon, you'll see dark lanes running through the Milky Way as it passes through Sagittarius. These are those clouds of dust and gas.

8)

__________________
A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Problem is, in addition to having all those bright stars between here and the core, we also have layers of dust and gas between here and the core. Those clouds absorb almost all of the visible light from the core. It's visible in other wavelengths (I think infrared is best), but that doesn't help much with a visible-light telescope, of course.
For what it's worth, though, it's located in Sagittarius, near the intersection with Scorpio and Ophiuchus.

__________________
GhiaPet Home Page

Ok, I'll buy all that. It does however raise another question...

Infrared eh? Do they make infrared eyepieces or filters or something for scopes so that a person would be able to see such things? I would think that such a view would be simply -outstanding- and worth the effort.

BTW, thanks for the -very- quick reply's...I only posted that about a half hour ago! You folks are the best :-)

Also, a little side note to anyone who's followed any of my posts...I did sign up to join the Black River Astronomy group thats in my area this week. My wife and I went to one of their meetings last night and they were having a "mini-Messier marathon" with a slide show and lots of into and such (not to mention free grubs afterwards! LOL!). They seem like a really great group of folks and after my first star party and the meeting last night, I decided to go ahead and apply...my membership is pending their board approval .

Thanks again and bright blessings!
Jim

While I might be a bit behind on the technology front, I'm still pretty sure you'd have to get an infrared retina implant* to be able to view that. There's probably some way to hook up a CCD to a telescope, and view infrared on a screen, but that's going to be a lot of money if the equipment is even out there. About the best you can likely do is admire the clouds of dust in the lanes.

Note that this isn't a standard CCD we're talking about; it would have to be a special infrared CCD. That's where the "lot of money" comes into play.

* Note for the sarcasm/biology impaired: That's the back of your eyeball. You aren't getting much of anything implanted there... yet.

__________________
GhiaPet Home Page

Thanks John,
Actually I have been looking at CCD devices and what I actually think I'm going to do is go the converted webcam route instead. In fact I bought a basic webcam this afternoon for $9 but it used a parallel port and an IBM PS/2 keyboard port for the connections but my laptop don't have any PS/2 ports so I returned it...will have to look for a USB webcam instead. I'm thinkin that I should be able to just make a fitting out of PVC pipe that will fit over the eye piece and I should be able to connect the webcam to that....sort of a homemade webcam T-adaptor .

Maybe I'll look around on the web a little bit and see what I can find in regards to infrared stuff as well. While I'm still learnin about scopes, I do know a bit about computers (used to be A+ certified) so I may be able to come up with something that way...as I said before, if I can get something to work, I have a feeling it would be well worth the effort!

Thanks again!
BB's,
Jim

And no musician ever turns down free food, right?

FWIW, when I was actively providing sound reinforcement for bands, one of the riders in my contract stipulated that if the band got fed, I did too!

__________________
Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

The problem that you will run into is that a good deal of the infrared radiation from space is absorbed by water vapor in the atmosphere. Most of the infrared telescopes on Earth are on high, dry mountains tops. The only way to observe the full spectrum of infrared is to get above the atmosphere. The new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be an infrared observatory.

__________________
"A mystic is a person who is puzzled before the obvious but who understands the nonexistent." -- Elbert Hubbard

Can't see the center of our galaxy? Here's a great shot of it, courtesy Scott Hyman of Sweet Briar College. Look at all those supernova remnants (SNRs)!

__________________
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

This is pretty impressive.

__________________
You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel