I remember the last time I saw the milky way. I was at my aunt's house in the foothills of the Sierras, and late at night the dense river of stars emerges. But that is still not the true milky way, or so I hear. And, in more urban areas, the detritus of our incandescent society reduces the night sky to an inchoate glow. This article in the New Yorker talks about the poorly designed night time illumination that has resulted in our current situation, and what can be and is being done about it.
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So true. The city I live in is light polluted because our former Mayor thought uplighting made buildings look cool, damn him.
I can resolve a lot more starts with my 10x50 binoculars but I wish I could see more.
I saw Comet Halley with unaided eyes at the Mars site of the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the Mojave Desert. Under those conditions, the Milky Way is gobsmacking.