Large-scale structures behind the southern Milky Way from observations of partially obscured galaxies

We report here on extragalactic large-scale structures uncovered by a deep optical survey for galaxies behind the southern Milky Way. Systematic visual inspection of the ESO/SRC survey revealed over 10000 previously unknown galaxies in the region 265 degrees less than or similar to l less than or similar to 340 degrees, \b\ less than or similar to 10 degrees. With subsequently obtained redshifts of more than 10% of these galaxies, new structures across the Milky Way are unveiled, such as a filament at similar to 2500 km s(-1) connecting to the Hydra and Antlia clusters, a shallow extended supercluster in Vela (similar to 6000 km s(-1)), and a nearby (4882 km s(-1)), very massive (M similar to 2-5 x 10(15)M.) rich Coma-like cluster which seems to constitute the previously unidentified centre of the Great Attractor. The innermost part of the Milky Way, where the foreground obscuration in the blue is A(B) greater than or similar to 5(m), i.e. where HI-column densities N-HI greater than or similar to 6.10(21)cm(-2), remains fully opaque. In this approximately 8 degrees wide strip, the forthcoming blind HI survey with the multibeam system at Parkes will provide the only tool to unveil this part of the extragalactic sky.