When, where and how to watch Milky Way in Israel
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.
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.
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.
Good luck!
P.S. More Milky Way pictures you can find on my site.