What does the Milky Way look like from outside?

The Galactic structure from K giants:

From spectra, one can measure velocities and abundances of K giants from the Solar neighborhood to ~10 kpc beyond the Galactic center. By surveying spectroscopically many 100,000's of stars from Galactic longitude 270 through 0 through 90, and latitudes -5 to +5, one can map the distances, velocities, and abundances of stars in and between spiral arms within the Solar circle. This 1800 sq. deg. survey requires 900 pointings (>2,000,000 stars), which can be done in a few months and would yield a map of the spatial, chemical, extinction, and structural properties of the disk, as well as identify more galaxies like Sag.