Now is the time to see the Milky Way in clear weather in the evening or at night. In the starry sky you will see a luminous band running from one side of the horizon to the other, straight through the point directly above your head. “Especially around these days, when the moon does not show itself, it is dark enough to admire the Milky Way,” explains astronomer Jeffrey Bout. “But you have to go to the east or north of the country to escape the air pollution. It still works in Zeeland, but not in the Randstad anymore.”
On a clear evening with freezing temperatures, we are at the Ezumakeeg lookout point, a well-known point among bird watchers. It is located in the Lauwersmeer national park, on the Wadden coast and on the border between Groningen and Friesland. But we don’t come for the birds now – although you can constantly hear the geese in the background – but for the stars. It is pitch dark, and it is not without reason that the area has been declared a Dark Sky Park. Especially on clear winter evenings like this, when there is a new moon, this is one of the hotspots in the Netherlands for a good view of the Milky Way. The Milky Way is the galaxy in which we find ourselves with the Earth and the Sun.
2024-01-12 16:25:59
#night #billions #stars #Milky #Early #Birds #BNNVARA
