Our perspective of the Galaxy is highly biased by the fact that we are INSIDE IT.. Peering out to the heavens, what do we see??

If we look in all directions, we see a flattened disk. We appear to be at the center, or maybe just slightly off center.. The first model of our galaxy made by William Herschel in the 18th century looked like this (the Sun's position is denoted by the yellow star):

But Herschel did not know about interstellar dust!!