galactic objects and the human eye

[Umlüx]

everybody knows those breathtaking long time exposures and renders of stellar and galactic objects.

but imagine we perfected FTL engines, flew out there and looked back through the window of the spacecraft. how would the milky way look to the naked human eye? or the pillars of creation? or all those other iconic pictures we know from the interwebs...
undoubtably they would be very dim and by no means as colorful. but how would they really look if you could just visit those places? are there maybe images somewhere, showing what you could expect?

[Martian Music]

Putting how the Milky Way would look like aside, the view would be rather.. boring.. if not scary. All the stars we see at night are only a small part of the Milky Way (except the visible galaxies like Andromeda, Triangulum, the Magellanic clouds..) so we would really only see blackness, and the mentioned galaxies (and of course the Milky Way itself). No one is sure of how the Milky Way REALLY looks like but it would most likely look like the pictures we see of it (the artist renders). It might be a bit dim because of our eye exposure, but if you're close enough, it would probably look better than ever.

 

Furthermore, NGC 6744 is the most similar galaxy to the Milky Way known to date (of course that's if our Milky Way looks like we imagine it) so the view would probably look like this galaxy does. Here's a great picture of it. I think if you remove the stars in the background, that's how our home would look like.

And if you're far from it, it would probably look like Andromeda from here, just a small and dim object. Damn, how small are we..

EDIT: But now that I think of it, we'd only see the stars closest to us and the brightest ones without a camera exposure so the view would probably be.. not impressive?

Edited December 22, 2015 by Martian Music

[Shpaget]

You can go to a dark sky location and see for yourself. You don't need an FTL capable ship. A proper dark sky will give you a fantastic naked eye view of the Milky Way.

[Martian Music]

I believe he meant how it would actually look like to see the whole Milky Way from afar but you're right, the views from dark skies are fascinating (never got to see one, stupid cities :/)

[problemecium]

Regarding the Pillars of Creation and other famous objects, a lot of those popular images are not only long-exposure but false-color, showing colors based on spectra we humans can't see. Most nebulae would look either a slate gray or a ruddy brown, if I've heard correctly. Here's the Cat's Eye nebula for example:

src: http://www.budgetastronomer.ca/index.php?page=what-can-you-see

[lajoswinkler]

Yes, dull, pale and dark. It gets worse when you approach them or enter them. The only reason we see them is because they're "concentrated" enough on one point of the sky. Approach them and suddenly all that light is across half of the sky. Basically you would see nothing in most cases.

False color, wider spectrum and long exposure. That's what makes nebulas nice.

[cubinator]

If you managed to get outside the galaxy, it would be a lot dimmer than what it looks like from Earth, as you are looking at a much thinner slice rather than through the thick side. Furthermore, it would not look colorful at all, just a big round grayish blob among the endless blackness around it. You wouldn't be able to see anything at all if there are any lights on inside your FTL spaceship due to the reflection on the glass. I've been out to places where you can really see the stars, and Andromeda is still just a barely visible oval blob. You can't even see it if you look directly at it because it gets in your blind spot. That's probably similar to what the Milky Way would look like, just not as big in the sky. If we could see all the colors that those long-exposure false-color images are taken in, it might look as colorful as the pictures, but until we invent better eyes, we're stuck with gray blobs.

[Motokid600]

A nebulae would just become more and more diffused as you got closer to it until it disappeared. As for all the colors you see... Some are false color sure, but not all of them. Not sure why people are saying otherwise.

A 15 second exposure through a telescope of the Orion nebulae for instance will give you reds, green, blues, the works. No false color. No post processing. It's natural.