Originally posted by Cochrane:
It appears that the bulk of each arm is within a 5000 light year thickness and that the space between the arms is about the same.
The Federation fits rather conveniently between our two neighboring arms. The LUGTOS Map places us at the center of the Orion Arm, yet page 182 says we're between Orion and Sagittarius. I think real science says we're on the inner edge of Orion.
I picked up a book a while back, called Norton's Star Atlas And Reference Handbook Nineteenth Edition edited by Ian Ridpath. It's got the standard maps of each hemisphere of the sky, 16 maps of the poles and wedges each cut in half, and a two-piece map with the galaxy running across the center. This last one can help you easily see which stars are in each galactic direction and which would be in each of 001's neighboring sectors. Use the others in conjunction with it for more detail. It also has text about our planets, a text chart of the Local Group of galaxies, and a bunch of other stuff. It's very good for those not as interested in observing for themselves. It's about 180 pages and cost me about 40 american dollars.