Have you ever looked up and actually seen the Milky Way?

Many times in summer for that matter because I sleep in open on my roof top for fresh cool air .. So starring in sky and looking at stars and milky way is routine for me. In India we call it Akash Ganga. Ganga is the name of river Ganges and Akash means sky. According to our scriptures, what u call milkyway is in fact river Ganga flowing in the sky i.e. because milky way looks like river. So we believe river Ganges is holy because it came down from sky to purify those who take a bath in it.