A third of the world population has never seen the Milky Way.

Have you ever seen it?

Have your children?

Let’s see when, where, and how to see Milky Way in Israel.

There are a few things that can prevent us from seeing the Milky Way:

Light pollution from cities Our eyes not being adapted to darkness

3. Light pollution from the Moon

4. No Milky Way currently visible on the sky

How can we fight with each of these issues?

1. Light pollution from cities

City lights and light from windows illuminates the dust in the air,

which reflects the light and causes the sky to look bright even at

night. If the sky is bright we won’t be able to see the milky way very

well, or even not at all- thus we stay go far from cities for this

purpuse.

Use a light pollution map. Avoid all areas marked by green, yellow,

and red. The darker — better.

Also, you can take a look at the map of night camping sites, to know

where you can have an overnight stargazing experience.

I would recommend these two camping sites: Nahal Gvanim (Ramon crater) and Borot Lutz.

Shivta forest or Mezada West are also good, but they are closer to

cites, which means more light pollution. So if you’re unable to drive

far, those might be the options for you.

A few more dark camping sites are listed on this site.

If you don’t like camping, you can chose a night when the moon isn’t

visible, when the Milky Way is above the horizon, just go to one of

those camping sites at the evening, wait until you can see the Milky

Way and go back home.

However, I would highly recommend to lay under the star sky with a

bottle of Alsace Riesling instead of driving through the night back

home.

Ardon mount camping — near the eastern edge of Ramon Crater. To get

there, you’ll need to drive long on a badly paved road.

Ardon mount camping. On this picture you can even find Andromeda galaxy. It is large and you can see it using a good binocular.

Ardon mount camping.

Shivta. By the way, did you know that the Earth rotates?

Shivta ruins

Shivta ruins

The darkest site in Israel, Karkom mountain

Camping site Nahal Gvanim

2. The illumination of our eyes

When the eye sees something bright, the pupil narrows and the eye does

not see any faint objects. So after you arrived at the right camping

site, eat meat and drink wine, move away from the campfire and bright

camping lights for 100–200 meters into the desert, turn off lights and

let your eyes at least five minutes out of the bright light. If you

want to find constellations on the map or in the phone, use a red

flashlight — it will light up your eyes less. Any all good astronomy

software smartphone also have a “red” mode, just for these purposes.

3. Light from the moon

The moon is very bright. If fhere is the Moon — the Milky Way is not

visible. Wait until the moon is new (the beginning of the Jewish

month) or will be beyond the horizon at the time, when you have

planned observations.

You can see the phases of the moon, the time of its rising and setting

at this site.

4. The absence of the Milky Way in the sky.

It’s may be strange, but the Milky Way is not always visible. It also

ascends and sets and shows at different times at of the year.

Take advantage of one of the many planetarium programs to know when it

is visible. I personally use Stellarium to be the best one for

But in general, the Milky Way is usually best seen from somewhere

around July to March, and the brightest part of it shows from July to

October. In these months you don’t need any planetariums; you can just

go the desert on a moonless night and enjoy yourself.

By the way, in winter, the visibility of the sky in average is much

better mainly because of less dust being present in the air.

Also, do not forget to check the weather forecast and make sure the

night you choose to go stargazing is not too cloudy- as the clouds,

too, can interfere and completely block your vision of the beautiful

night sky.

If you have seen enough of the Milky Way and have already found the

constellations and the brightest stars, you can spend some time

watching the satellites.

In the dark places in which the Milky Way is visible, 10–20 satellites

and rocket stages can be seen during the night.

Near the end of this 30 sec timelapse video you can see satellites tracks

Download the free application “Heavens Above” (or print maps on their

website — just do not forget to indicate on the place exactly where

you are!) and it will show you at what time in which area of the sky

you can see the satellite. If you’re lucky, you’ll see the ISS — it’s

so bright I thought at first it was an airplane flying right above me.

Timelapse video. Astro photographers at work

Good luck!

P.S. More Milky Way pictures you can find on my site.