[ds_]

Yes, it's the plane of our galaxy. If you click show constellations and objects, you can see where we are in the spiral, bottom left.

[theallan]

What is the "shadow" that appears to go across the plane in a very irregular manner? Is there a local dust cloud obscuring parts of the main plane?

[ds_]

It's the Great Rift http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Rift_(astronomy)

[jordanthoms]

Interesting, I haven't seen this clustering from looking at the sky before - is it because this is more sensitive than the naked eye?

[ddeck]

This is one of the downsides of living in a heavily populated area. It's quite visible once you get away from the light pollution around cities.

[Pitarou]

It's called the Milky Way!

In general, you can't see it if you're anywhere near an urban area.

[ds_]

You can see it in areas with little light pollution (although not quite like this image), otherwise most of the stars are too faint.