[petuniasevan]

That's too bad. It's true; most people never will see it.

I did on a pre-dawn early October morning in 1975 while camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains (on the eastern side) between Bishop and Mammoth Mountain. Elevation was 9000 feet; temperature was way too low for my liking.

I've never since seen such a dark sky; it looked like black velvet strewn with diamond dust an inch in front of me.

The zodiacal light really stood out, as there is nothing but the White Mountains and the Nevada desert to the east there.

[BradyLS]

About 15 years ago, I saw the Milky Way through night vision goggles on a clear night in the desert around Fort Irwin, California. It was dazzling enough without it, but seeing the light from those stars magnified against the green field created by the goggles was amazing. Sunlight ruins them by burning out the receptors.