Our eyes have some detail-discerning properties that not even the best long-exposure photograph can match. This advantage is considerable in the case of the Milky Way, which has such great extent that it does not require a telescope. I can recall with great fondness one particular night nearly 35-years ago, spent under the dark skies of upstate New York's Adirondack Mountains where I spent a considerable amount of time savoring the Milky Way in all of its magnificence.

So clear was the sky, that rather than appearing as a filmy band of light, the Milky Way appeared granulated in texture, and glowed so bright that it actually cast faint shadows!
The article continues to describe the various categories of night skies according to how far out of a major city one lives.