This region of the sky is easiest to see on late summer and early fall evenings from mid and upper latitudes in the northern hemisphere. The map below shows the location in the sky of the long, rectangular CGPS field, as seen from Calgary, Alberta at 9pm on October 15th. The north horizon is at the top, south at the bottom, east at the left, and west at the right. The Galactic Plane is marked in red. Major star magnitudes and colors are indicated.
Constellations are in yellow.
The other images on this page also have larger versions accessible in the same way. XEphem map courtesey software developed by E. C. Downey . Superposed on this disk is a broad spiral pattern. Many other galaxies in the universe have a form similar to our own. This photograph of the galaxy Messier 83 gives a rough idea of what ours might look like if we could see it from the outside.