Why does the Southern Hemisphere get the best view of the Milky Way?! | The Galactic Seasons

I am a disgruntled Northern Hemisphere astronomer. Where is my amazing overhead view of the centre of the Milky Way, like what the Southern Hemisphere gets?! It's because nothing lines up nicely in space so we're currently in the middle of the Sun's southern hemisphere galactic summer... but not for "long"!

#milkyway

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We're moving house soon so I'm hoping to get more prints to decorate the wall in my new office! If you know of any artists that make scientifically accurate or data related art send them my way!

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Dr Becky Smethurst is an astrophysicist researching galaxies and supermassive black holes at Christ Church at the University of Oxford.

[misfittech]

Dr Becky, make sure you look at the Plate tectonics calculators, Your house may be in the southern hemisphere when the northern is pointing to Sagittarius. I'd hate for you to wait all that time and still not be able to see it from your house.

[damien]

HA!
Thanks for that explanation. I grew up in Southern Africa, returning to the the UK as an adult. Trying to explain the skys of the deep bush of Botswana at night to friends has been like explaining what chocolate is to someone who has never tasted sugar.
Now at last I have a reason. I never realised the solar system had such a tilt with regards to the galactic core.

[DrBecky]

I’m on holiday when this video goes live so I probably won’t be online to respond to the first comments and questions like I usually do. It’d be great to come back home to a flurry of science questions on any topic in space that I could make future videos on. I know you all have those burning space questions so comment away!

P.S. Oops holiday fried my brain - accidentally scheduled for next Wednesday - sorry this is later than usual!

[peterskye]

I do really appreciate the Winter skies in Australia. Long, cold nights staring into the galactic centre as it wheels overhead. Scorpio and Sagittarius is all their glory. Summer nights give us a great view of the Magellanic Clouds.

[dreadnoughtus]

100 Thousand years? Ok, I'll set my alarm. I live in the northern hemisphere and do not want to miss this because I fell asleep

[rogeriopenna]

We in the southern hemisphere are also closer to Alpha Centauri.


That means we get a headstart (when eventually going there) of about 5000 km out of 45 trillion km! TAKE THAT!

[nickdiamond]

Mind blown. Never knew that we orbit the sun at a 60° angle relative to the Milky Way. So immediately angular momentum was my question. ☑️ Answered

[galacticknight]

This video makes me want to visit the southern hemisphere just to see the southern sky.

[alexmontgomery]

In July 1974 my father and I were visiting an uncle who lived about 30 miles west of Montevideo, Uruguay. I remember walking down to the beach on a moonless night. The sky was the darkest that I have ever seen. Every few seconds I would see a meteor and spread across the sky was The Milky Way. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds were clearly visible. Wow!

[Djr]

I get good views of the Milky way where I live in Australia, I live in a country town, so a few kilometers out of town on a moonless night and it looks amazing.

[terryendicott]

Although I admire your patience you might just look into a plane ticket.

[misantroop]

So glad i live in the southern hemisphere. Couldn't imagine not looking at the stars and not seeing the milky way in all its glory

[augiegray]

In 1986 I went on an observing trip with a group to Peru (way up in the Andes) to see Halley's Comet. The comet was fairly impressive but the BIG WOW was the view of the southern sky!! The skies were so dark you could look up an see the color of individual stars with the naked eye! Like brilliant diamonds! And I was astounded when I looked up and saw the LMC....and then saw the SMC....it felt like I could reach up and touch another galaxy!! It was so dark that no matter how long we were out there our eyes sever adjusted to the dark enough so that we could see the person standing next to us (I was holding on to my girlfriend but could not see her face!!) . Becky, really you need to get your butt down there. But be careful, it is dangerous down there, we had guards with machineguns traveling with joke!! Tony

[kaitlynb]

I'm from South Africa, the views of the night sky when you are in an area away from light pollution will leave you in awe

[Nilguiri]

Go and live in Patagonia! I was there and the Milky Way was amazing! It was like somebody had painted the sky with white paint. There are no towns to cause light pollution for thousands of kilometers.

[neilrobin]

I've traveled to the Southern Hemisphere many times and really enjoyed seeing the Southern Cross and Alpha Centauri (nearest star system to our sun),

[Sorax]

Hahaha Bless you! The sneeze at the end got me! Please keep these outtakes in your videos! 😂

[guillespiers]

Loved your video! I live in the southern hemisphere, and right now, the milky way core is beautiful in the sky. Our doors are open to everyone that may wanna see it from the south! :D Cheers from Lima, Perú!

[james]

When I went to Zimbabwe I saw the Milky Way it was life changing

[glasslinger]

I live in Houston TX USA. You can hardly see Venus! The light pollution is horrible!