<p>Stars beyond our own galaxy and its immediate neighbors are indistinct without a large telescope, so I assume the question is about the band across the sky, rich with faint stars.</p>

<p>The Milky Way's boundary is fuzzy, so its extent is expressed in terms of isophotes: lines of constant brightness per unit solid angle (e.g. square degree).
It is wider near the central bulge (galactic longitudes around 0&deg; or 360&deg;) than away from it (around 180&deg;).
Most stars within galactic latitudes &plusmn;10&deg; are in the Milky Way; most outside &plusmn;15&deg; are not.
At galactic latitudes in between, galactic longitude and the choice of isophote determine whether a star is in or out.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-17T05:09:02.090Z
2019-05-17T05:09:02.090Z
Mike G
<p>I have data that contains galactic latitude and longitude of stars. I have to determine all the stars that are within our milky way. How do I find it?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-16T15:31:56.613Z
Do you also have distance-from-Earth data for all of these stars?  If so, and the distance is less than a few dozen thousand light-years,  I suspect the answer is "all of them are in the Milky Way"
notovny
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-16T20:39:53.307Z
Milky way can mean two things. One is the name of our galaxy, the second is a band of light in the sky. By "within our milky way" do you mean "in our galaxy" or "positioned in the band of light."
James K
<star><milky-way><galactic-center>
How do I find stars within milky way using galactic latitude and longitude
Swapnil Sharma
# How do I find stars within milky way using galactic latitude and longitude

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-05-16)

I have data that contains galactic latitude and longitude of stars. I have to determine all the stars that are within our milky way. How do I find it?

**Tags:** star, milky-way, galactic-center

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Do you also have distance-from-Earth data for all of these stars?  If so, and the distance is less than a few dozen thousand light-years,  I suspect the answer is "all of them are in the Milky Way"  
> **username_2**: Milky way can mean two things. One is the name of our galaxy, the second is a band of light in the sky. By "within our milky way" do you mean "in our galaxy" or "positioned in the band of light."  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-05-17. Score: 1

Stars beyond our own galaxy and its immediate neighbors are indistinct without a large telescope, so I assume the question is about the band across the sky, rich with faint stars.

The Milky Way's boundary is fuzzy, so its extent is expressed in terms of isophotes: lines of constant brightness per unit solid angle (e.g. square degree).
It is wider near the central bulge (galactic longitudes around 0° or 360°) than away from it (around 180°).
Most stars within galactic latitudes ±10° are in the Milky Way; most outside ±15° are not.
At galactic latitudes in between, galactic longitude and the choice of isophote determine whether a star is in or out.


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