If they're seeing Orion with everything exactly in place then they're in our space already. Didn't see anything recognizeable out Cally's little window, though, and I've been into astronomy since I was a little kid.

My theory is this...

I think the Cylons were at the time of that little civil war jump exactly in the right place. PErhaps it was accidentally picked as a place to make the ambush occur, and then they jumped out and never noticed where they were. Who knows. If true, then I'm sure some Cylon on some basestar that was in attendance will at some later point go through their scans and realize this and they'll at some point head back, assuming they left after the ambush.

I've been watching the star scenes in the battlestar shots and so far I've not recognized a single earth-point-of-view constellation. I think the Galactica is indeed going the wrong way because of this.

I think the appearance of Orion in the Cylon scene - and the lack of any recognizeable constellations in any Galactica scenes - are by intelligent purposeful DESIGN of the writers, and not by some sneaky homage placement and/or by some artist who wanted to be cute. If they got Orion's stars so exactly correctly then they went through painstaking EFFORTS to make Orion (and also Taurus above it, and Canis Major below it, in their exact correct positions, for those of you who looked even MORE closely) so exact and this shows *purpose*, to me.

The producers are giving some of the astronomy-smarter of us in the viewership HINTS.

As for Starbuck's weird reappearance...

We're forgetting how things parallel the older series (and also how they don't).

If you go back to the original series, there was a show where both Starbuck AND Apollo were chased down by some strange city ship and ended up meeting the gods (or something like that) and came back in these perfect white helmuts and uniforms and ships. (Remember?) In our Galactica remake, I think this time Starbuck went through some kind of time dilation occurance went she dived down that hole and then ended up meeting (the gods?), was given some information, and her memory was then wiped. (What exactly WAS it that she dove into again, anyway? I can't remember.) I think Starbuck is actually on the correct path and the gods gave her something to help her sense where she was. I also think that the Cylon basestar entity's prophecy that Starbuck would lead them astray is - in a SENSE - still quite true, then...only because everyone thinks she's a Cylon and no one wants to believe in her and so...no one wants to follow her. It's not REALLY Starbuck who is leading everyone astray, but everyone else's distrust of her which ends up causing the same thing to happen.

I bet I'm right on, or very - if not extremely - close. :)

You see Orion out the window in Cally's scene, clear as crystal and instantly recognisable. Was definately a 'wow' moment for me.

WhizGidget : They wouldn't have to be where Earth is though to see it like that, they could be a hell of a long way back or to either side, above or below our Solar System and still see it more or less as we do (though naturally being further away from our Sun, closer to another star or any number of things out there in deep space will affect how clear it stands out). The space between the stars that make up the Orion constellation are enourmously far apart I'm quite certain you could be an incredible distance away from Earth and view it just as we do.

Though.......I am definately quite partial to the dimensional theory.

Bryan is on the right track - space is 3 dimensional.

If they're seeing Orion the way *we* see Orion, then they're already at Earth. Or at least where Earth is supposed to be - maybe they're just in the wrong dimension because Kara died and came back...how the heck does something like *that* happen (leaving the fact that it's television out of the equation) unless you're playing with different dimensions and timelines.

only proves they are in our galaxy, doesnt mean they are anywhere near earth, probably just facing the same way, but lightyears apart.

The thing that doesn't make sense to me is how is there a window in the side of the launch tube that Cali was in, doesn't the launch tubes come out perpendicular to the ship, and its not like she was at the end of the ship either

Remember that space is a 3 dimensional space, and that while they may be close on one axis, or even two, doesn't mean that on the third that they are anywhere near earth.

Interesting to see though...

We knew they were close last year, they are in the Milky Way, and even in the "arm" of the MW that the Earth is in.