On 09/02/2020 16:19, Robin wrote:
On 09/02/2020 12:53, Richard wrote:

FWIW, I have never seen the milky way in all it's glory other than in
photos due to the simple fact that the smaller points of light are not
visible with my prescription.

I've never seen it, probably because I've never attempted to see it
anywhere dark enough.

The OED defines the Milky Way as " The irregular, faintly luminous band
that circles the night sky, now recognized as composed of billions of
stars..."Â* If someone claims to be able to see the individual stars in
the Milky Way either (a)Â* they don't know what it is or (b) they have
/very/ big eyes.

Presumably it's visible because we are looking across the disc of the
galaxy where there are a lot of stars in the same direction. There must
be stars in the same direction near enough to be seen individually; why
shouldn't they be said to be "in the Milky Way"?

--
Max Demian