The Milky Way

The Milky Way is a faint band of light that stretches across the entire sky spanning both the northern and southern hemispheres. Binoculars or small telescopes reveal it as countless stars. Known since prehistoric times, the Milky Way is now known to be the spirial arms and the central region of the galaxy in which we live.

The centre of our galaxy is in the constellation of Sagitarius. Here can be found a super massive black hole which governs the dynamics of the galaxy, just as our Sun governs the Solar System.

Star Clusters

The main part of the Milky Way is made up of stars, which are often grouped into star clusters. These occuoy the same volume of three-dimensional space as opposed to constellations which are only two-dimensional. Constellations contain both nearby stars and far distant galaxies which may be close together in our sky, but separated by millions of light years. There are many star clusters.

• The Local Cluster The Sun belongs to this system
• The Pleides
• The Hydes

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