This has always bugged me, and I've never said anything before, but here goes:

Does the VO Map represent an entire "Universe" or does it represent a "Galaxy"? i.e. is Deneb in the ("our") Milky Way, while Pelatus could be a billion light-years away in some other galaxy in the Leo Supercluster?

I'm thinking this map represents a Galaxy, and not a Universe. Actually, probably only one part of a galaxy. Otherwise, the exiles would have shown earth on it, right? Far far away but unreachable by wormhole?

We call it the VO Universe because it is everything in VO. Everything implies Universe. However, I always pictured all the systems residing within a single galaxy.

Like Strat says, it is the "VO Universe", but yes, all systems exist within our single galaxy. I did try to cover this in the storyline, but I may not have been clear.

The only real "anchor" system, that is clearly part of our galaxy, is Deneb. The rest are too far away to be seen from Earth.

What about Odia? It's a bit of a stretch, but as Kraz (the planet that Corvus Hold orbits) is the name of a star in the Corvus constellation... couldn't it be possible that Odia is also visible from Earth?

Kraz, as a star in the real world, is much much closer to Earth than Deneb is.

This probably would make more sense as a suggestion, but if the map was modified to reflect some of the background constellations it might help settle the anchor.

Something like simply adding small notations to the map "Horsehead Nebula" things that are commonly known that may exist somewhere near our space.

As for the tie in, I think it was fairly clear, since it was noted it was a wormhole directly from Earth to the planet Terra II in the Sol II system. Might just make a good note of which galaxy we really are in. Esp. if exploration missions ever get brought in to expand the universe or what-have-you.

Just because the systems look the way they do on the current map doesn't mean they actually are in that arrangement if one were to look on a map of the Milky Way. Just a minor side effect of wormholes being how the systems are connected.

For all we know, Itan and Sol II could be effectively next door neighbors...