Hi, I'm Shannon Silverman, astrophysicist at the Clay center.

And welcome to Almost Heavens.

Here in West Virginia, we're just about halfway between the North Pole and the equator.

That means we are in the perfect spot to view everything the northern skies have to offer, and even a little of the southern skies to.

summer is the best time of year to see.

One of the most spectacular features of the entire night sky, the Milky Way.

This beautiful archin band of golden light and dark, wispy cloud stretches across the night sky, and its milky appearance led not only to its name, the Milky Way, but eventually to the word galaxy itself.

Galaxies, huge collections of stars and other types of matter, all held together by gravity, come in various shapes and sizes and are organized into different types.

The most common type are called spiral galaxies because, well, they look like spirals.

They're made up of a core, a glowing bright center containing tons of stars and the distinctive spiral arms.

Thoug both of these features can vary.

Our Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, and in fact, it's just about as average a spiral galaxy as you can get.

It has a barred core, which means that the core has an elongated structure rather than being round.

This is a common feature found in about two thirds of all spirals.

It also has several arms, though the exact number is still up for debate.

Generally, we conside the Milky Way to have four arms, and those arms are wound medium tightly around the core.

In those arms lies the solar system, located on the Orion Arm or the Orion Spur, depending on how you define it.

Either way it means our solar system lies approximately halfway between the core and the outer edges of the arms.

So about half the galaxy lies in between us and the core.

This is why the Milky Way appears the way that it does in the sky.

The beautiful glow is the core of our galaxy, and the dark clouds are the bands of dust in the portions of the spiral arms between us and the core.

If these arms didn't exist, the core would be so bright in our sky that not only would it glo brighter than the moon at night, it would likely be visible in the daytime.

To view the Milky Way, you need to go to an area with low light pollution, so unfortunately it will be difficult to see in a city.

However, West Virginia has many beautiful locations that are perfect for viewing the Milky Way, including three recognized dark sky parks Watoga State Park, Calvin Price State Forest, and Droo Mountain Battlefield State Park.

Additionally, several other locations such as Blackwater Falls and Spruce Knob offer fantastic viewing conditions as do many less official places.

Thank you for joining!

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Until next time,