Why doe The Milky Way look like this?

[Arata]

How come whenever I look at The Milky Way in photos or with my own eyes, the dust an stars seem to be ABOVE the galaxy? If we were right in the galactic disc, wouldn't all the dust make a dark line acrsoss the sky?

Heres an image of an edge on spiral galaxy:

http://www.utahskies.org/image_library/deepsky/ngc/ngc891_wiyn_big.gif

How we see The Milky Way (Notice how the dust is above the plane of the galaxy):

http://www.starrynightphotos.com/milky_way/images/milky_way_mosaic.jpg

[Bla]

Isn't it just because we aren't exactly in the galactic plane, but slightly under it, so the closer objects (the dust) seems to be above the further away objects (the core and many of the stars)?

[Dan Dixon]

I believe Bla is right. We're slightly off center from the center of the galactic plane.

Try this... Hold out your hand flat in front of you so that you can only see the side of one finger. Now move your hand down slightly, so that your eyes are no longer perfectly inline with your hand. Notice how you can now see just the top edge of your other fingers. Making it look like there's more stuff slightly above your finger than below it.

Does that clear it up for you?