DU astronomers, a Milky Way question.

[roamer65]

30. gen answer to thread- you are seeing multiple arms throughout the year.

Their position in the sky depends a lot on our 23 deg tilt and position in our orbit and obviously where you are on earth. Right now the Sagittarius arm is just starting to come up in the eastern sky in the evenings and stays low on the southern horizon for the continental United States for the summer. During the American summer the Cygnus arm usually comes in directly overhead as well. By winter the Orion arm is in the south for most in the US. Orion is acutally in the sky in the daytime right now and if I align my telescope and let it run into the daylight I can see stars like Betelgeuse, Rigel and Mintaka. Very easy to see Sirius in Canis Majoris during the daytime in a scope as well.

If you see one of the big mosaics of the galaxy, remember those have to be assembled from photographs of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere skies. The best I have been able to see into the Southern Hemisphere from my +42 and +43 deg N viewing locations is around -42 deg N, NGC6231 aka the Scorpius jewel box. Obviously the further south I go the more I would get to see.