Ronn Blankenship wrote:
>
>>Uh? _Dark_ stripe of the Galactic disk??? Formations of
>>clusters and nebulae??? What kind of galaxy is this? Is
>>there any neighbouring galaxy that fits this description?
>
>Any spiral, including our own Milky Way, seen nearly edge on
>
But seen from the _inside_?
>exhibits a
>prominent dark band across the middle due to extinction of starlight by the
>concentration of dust and gas near the galactic plane. (For more info and
>pretty pictures, see: <http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011021.html>,
><http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990919.html>,
><http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990617.html>, and
><http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961101.html>)
>
>Go out tonight
>
Probably can do it from my dinnerroom window - it faces North,
and Deneb will have an elevation of about 50 deg during
its transit, around 20:00 :-)
>and look up at the Milky Way through Cygnus, and you will
>see that it seems to be divided into two parallel streams by the "Cygnus
>Rift", which is where the clouds block the light of stars behind them in
>our Galaxy.
>
Oh, the night probably won't be too clear for me to
notice _that_! :-)
Alberto Monteiro
