Political Galactography

In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, Alfzar, an inhabited planet in the system of Betelgeuse, is an independent and neutral state located between the Terran Empire and the Merseian Roidhunate whereas the human-colonized planet of Aeneas in the system of the star, Virgil, is located on the opposite side of the Empire from Betelgeuse and the Roidhunate, in Sector Alpha Crucis of the Empire.

Thus, Ivar Frederiksen, seeing Betelgeuse from Aeneas, knows that the entire Empire is between him and it. Beyond Betelgeuse, he sees:

Rigel and the Pleiades, which are within the Roidhunate;
Polaris and the Orion Nebula, which are beyond it.

The Domain of Ythri is near Sector Alpha Crucis;

the Dispersal of Ymir - hydrogen-breathers colonizing Jovoid planets - interpenetrates other interstellar realms;

new stars and planets are forming within the Orion Nebula.

Imagine looking at the night sky and knowing all that.