Re: Phalon and Sa'Vasku encounters on starmaps?

Alan and Carmel Brain wrote:
> 
> From: "Bell, Brian K" <Brian_Bell@dscc.dla.mil>
> 
> > I am far out of the loop on astronomy, so please bare with me.
> > Last I heard, the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy and we are somwhere
on one
> of
> > the "arms". My question is ... Are we deep within the arm or close
to the
> > surface?
> 
> About 3/4 of the way out from the galactic centre, and about 1/3 of
the way
> out from the central axis of the arm IIRC

	Yes.  And the "plate" of the galaxy that the arms are in
	is about 1000 light years thick.  Sol is about 50 light
	years "above" the galactic plane which is in the 
	middle of the plate. By "above" I mean "to the galactic
	north". 

	On the FT maps:
	"Coreward" (i.e., to the galactic core) is in the +X
	direction.  The core is roughly 10,000 parsecs away
	(i.e., about 32,600 light years)

	"Rimward" (i.e., to the galactic rim) is in the -X direction.

	"Spinward" (i.e, in the direction the arms are going)
	is in the +Y direction.

	"Trailing" is in the -Y direction.

	"Up" (i.e., to the galactic north) is in the +Z direction
	
	"Down" is in the -Z direction.