[Argonavis (William)]

Originally Posted by glenc

What are we looking at when we look at the Milky Way?
How many arms are we looking through when we look in each direction?

Our understanding of the Milky Way has been updated recently.
See: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/19599619.html
For more detail see: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sp...20080603a.html

Thanks for that Glen, you always post interesting stuff.

A brilliant reference to how the appearance of the milky way gives a picture of the architecture of the milky way galaxy is Crossin's Sky Vistas:

http://www.amazon.com/Sky-Vistas-Bin...4016519&sr=1-1

highly recommended for visual observers.