The arc of the milky way

[creeksky]

Sorry if asked before, but I wondered since we are on the outer spiral of the milky way galaxy are our views restricted?

Are we looking across the spirals toward the centre of the galaxy on a flat plane?

Or are we tilted and the arc above is just the spiral arc we are on?

Are our views restricted? Being in the southern or northern hemisphere.

I know we can see other galaxy's, but do the other spirals block some from being scene?

Or are the gaps so large we can see through our whole galaxy.

Just trying to build a 3D mind picture of our spatial spot in the observable universe.:question:

[barx1963]

We are actually sitting inside the disc of the Milky way about 1/3 of the way out from the centre. When you look towards Sagittarius, you are looking at the centre of our galaxy. the part of the milky way that curves from Crux through Canis major and Orion is looking towards the outer edge.
Other directions you are looking away from the Milky way, that is why you are most likely to spot galaxies in those directions, for example the Fornax cluster and on the other side the Virgo/ Coma clusters.

Hope this is clear enough!

Malcolm

[creeksky]

Yes thanks that makes it clearer, now I know that arc above actually shows the center and we or it is on an angle.
Always thought that was just a spiral arm this picture helped too.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ESO-VLT-Laser-phot-33a-07.jpg
And these also help

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Galactic_longitude.JPG

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:3_Solar_Interstellar_Neighborh ood_(ELitU).png