Which part of the milky we way do we see in the night sky ?

[Kakadush]

Or more precisely , what 'arm' ? (i'm talking specifically about the 'glowy' part).
When looking in the summer nights sky from a dark location i can clearly see the wonderful glowing arm of the milky way in the sky and it got me thinking - what am i actually looking at ? 
is it the Perseus arm ? the Sagittarius arm ? neither of those? 
Would love an answer , thank you ! 

Dan.

[shelby90]

Hey there.. I believe that it depends on the time of year and where you are located that determines exactly what you are looking at on a specific night. But at times, we are looking directly into the center of the Milky Way. And we are looking at the galaxy edge-on, which is why it looks like strip through the sky. The core of the galaxy is in the constellation Sagittarius. This article explains it well, in my opinion.

http://www.universetoday.com/115203/what-part-of-the-milky-way-can-we-see/

[Stu]

Very interesting question. This link does not directly answer it, but does give some useful information about the structure of the spiral arms and where we are located.

http://earthsky.org/space/does-our-sun-reside-in-a-spiral-arm-of-the-milky-way-galaxy

More info here which does more directly answer the question

http://earthsky.org/space/star-seasonal-appearance-brightness

[Mrbloke]

Good question and good answer. Everyday's a learning day!

[Kakadush]

Thank you all for the informative replies , i see the answer is not as straight forward as i expected it to be which makes it all the more interesting , great reads in those articles indeed  

Dan.