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Which hemisphere has the best view of the Milky Way?

From which hemisphere can you see the largest part of the milky way? Which hemisphere is tilted towards the centre of the milky way?

Because the Milky Way forms a great circle in the sky, you can see equal amounts of it from the same latitude in either hemisphere. The closer to the equator you are, the more you can see. At the poles, you can only ever see half, because you can only see half of the sky. At the equator, you can see it all, because you can see the whole sky (if you watch for a whole year).

The center of the Milky Way is located in the Southern hemisphere, in the constellation Saggitarius.

March 1999, Dave Kornreich (more by Dave Kornreich)

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