Are we seeing stars or galaxies?
When we view the night sky without magnification, looking away from the plane of the Milky Way, are many of what appear to be stars actually galaxies? How many?
When we view the night sky without magnification, looking away from the plane of the Milky Way, are many of what appear to be stars actually galaxies? How many?
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Favorite Answer
They are nearly all stars (excluding the planets). There are only four galaxies (other than the Milky Way) visible to the naked eye: the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud, both visible only in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxies, both visible mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. For these two, you really need _exactly_ where to look to see them.
Anonymous
I think the most you could hope to see with the naked eye is four - Andromeda, the Triangulum Galaxy and the Small and Large Magellanic clouds. The last two can only be seen in the southern hemisphere.
Bullseye
No you are seeing stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
M31 is the exception; but you must be at a dark sky site and know exactly where to look. 99.9% are stars.
You might be able to see M81 but you would need exceptional sky conditions and GREAT vision.
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You are seeing stars. Very few galaxies are visible to the naked eye, and they don't appear to be points of light.
Anonymous
most of the dots of light you see are galaxies ., there are between 100 to 500 million stars in our galaxy but you can't see them as good as the billions of galaxies .