Milky Way will be visible over Memorial Day weekend. When to see our galaxy
The Milky Way will be more visible in the night-time sky across Michigan in the coming days, experts from NASA say, as we experience a new moon this month.
The billions of stars comprising our home galaxy should appear especially vibrant in late May as the band arcs across the night sky. The reason has much to do with the cycle of the moon, but it also has to do with how high in the sky the Milky Way should appear from our perspective here on Earth, specifically in the United States.
The peak days to view the Milky Way are now through Friday, May 30, according to science news website LiveScience. That's the period between the last quarter moon and the new moon.
Memorial Day weekend, weather permitting, offers nearly perfect timing. The new moon takes place Tuesday, May 26. Sunday night looks like the best viewing night with generally clear skies expected, according the the National Weather Service.
Here's everything to know about our Milky Way, including how to see the stunning natural phenomenon.
The Milky Way is our home galaxy with a disc of stars that spans more than 100,000 light-years in distance. Because it appears as a rotating disc curving out from a dense central reason, the Milky Way is known as a spiral galaxy.
Our planet is located along one of the galaxy's spiral arms, about halfway from the center, according to NASA.
The Milky Way sits in a cosmic neighborhood called the Local Group that includes more than 50 other galaxies. Those galaxies can be as small as a dwarf galaxy with up to only a few billion stars, or as large as Andromeda, our nearest large galactic neighbor.
Because Earth sits inside the galaxy, when we view it, we see it "edge on." The Milky Way got its name because from our perspective on Earth, it appears as a faint band of light stretching across the entire sky.
While the Milky Way is generally always visible from Earth, certain times of year are better for stargazers to catch a glimpse of the band of billions of stars comprising our galaxy.
"Milky Way season," when the galaxy's bright center becomes easier to see from Earth, typically runs from February to October, according to Milky Way photography website Capture the Atlas. However, the best time to see the Milky Way in the northern hemisphere is from March to September.
And for several days in May, the Milky Way should be even more visible than usual.
The peak days to view the Milky Way run through Friday, May 30, according to science news website LiveScience. That's the period between the last quarter moon and the new moon, when skies should be darker.
Those who live in the northern hemisphere, which includes the entire continental United States, could have spectacular views of the Milky Way on clear nights with a new moon.
Typically, the sky is darkest between about midnight and 5 a.m., according to Capture the Atlas.
Stargazers can observe the Milky Way galaxy by looking for the "Summer Triangle," "a shape formed by three bright stars" that spans across the Milky Way, according to LiveScience.com.
In the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way rises in the southeast, travels across the southern sky and sets in the southwest, according to Weather.com.
Spectators will have the best luck on cloud-free nights and in locations away from city light pollution. DarkSky International maintains a website that lists all designated dark sky communities around the world, including 159 locations in the U.S. including multiple sites in Michigan.
The best chance this weekend to see the Milky Way will be Sunday night, May 25, according to the National Weather Service.
Michigan will see partly cloudy skies the night of Saturday, May 24 in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Gaylord and Marquette, with cloudy skies expected over Sault Ste. Marie.
Sunday, the state will see clear skies before clouds move in for Monday night.
Timing your viewing experience with a new moon phase helps, astronomers say.
Just like Earth, half of the moon is always illuminated by the sun, while the other half remains dark. A new moon represents the start of a new lunar cycle, when the illuminated side of Earth's natural satellite is facing away from our planet, rendering it effectively invisible to us.
As the moon orbits around Earth and Earth orbits around the sun, the amount of sunlight that reflects off the moon and travels to our eyes changes every day until the moon appears as full.
The next new moon is Tuesday, May 26 (the day after Memorial Day), according to the website TimeAndDate.
The next full moon takes place June 11.
USA TODAY contributed.
Contact Jenna Prestininzi: jprestininzi@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Milky Way to light up Michigan skies. Will the clouds part this weekend
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