On a very dark, clear night, you can see a hazy band of light arching across the sky. Called the “Milky Way,” you are looking at the combined glow of billions of stars inside our galaxy too far from Earth to be seen individually. In this course, we will explore the Milky Way Galaxy.  In particular, (1) the myths and stories told by cultures around the world and how the Milky way was used by people to tell time, navigate, and construct calendars, (2) how astronomers eventually discovered that we live inside a galaxy of billions of other stars, (3) the astonishing celestial objects that comprise the Milky Way Galaxy, and (4) what space and ground-based telescopes have revealed about our Milky Way galaxy and the new questions that have emerged. No prior knowledge of astronomy is needed for this course.