JP Metsavainio, a Finnish astrophotographer, posted a picture of the Milky Way panorama on his Twitter account. He spent 12 years and 1250 hours capturing this phenomenal image. The result of his hard work is the most spectacular work of astronomy. The photographer started his activity in 2009 and completed the work in 2021.
JP Metsavainio spent 12 hours capturing the image
It took him twelve years to complete the mosaic of the image. The photo he launched has a width of about 100,000 pixels, has 234 individual mosaic panels sewn together and 1.7 gigapixels. JP Metsavainio, on his blog, gave two reasons why it took so long to capture the photo. He said,
The reason for a long time is naturally the size of the mosaic and the fact that the image is very deep. Another reason is that I understand most of the mosaic frames as individual compositions and publish them as independent works of art.
The California Nebula, NGC 1499, can be seen in the lower left of the large mosaic image. Credit: JP Metsavainio www.astroanarchy.zenfelio.com
For the image, its processing flow remained constant. He said that the total exposure time is over 1250 hours and that some of the frames have more exposure time than others. In the picture, there are some extremely weak objects, visible as a remnant of the extremely weak W63 supernova, Cygnus Shell. It is located about six degrees above the North American nebula and can be seen as a pale blue ring. He said,
I spent about 100 hours just for this SNR.
Color-mapped image of light emitted by an ionized element, hydrogen = green, sulfur = red and oxygen = blue. Credit: JP Metsavainio www.astroanarchy.zenfelio.com
According to the photographer’s blog, the other large and weak remnant of the Cygnus supernova can be seen at the far right edge of the image. G65.5 + 5.7 is as big as the most famous Veil nebula. There is only 60 hours of exposure for this SNR alone.
A close-up of the main image shows Sharpless 124 up and the Cocoon Nebula with a dark gas stream at the bottom. Credit: JP Metsavainio www.astroanarchy.zenfelio.com
Equipment used for imaging
He has used several optical configurations for this mosaic image over the years. Until 2014, he used a 12 “Meade LX200 GPS telescope, QHY9 astrocam, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics and a narrowband Baader filter set. After 2014, he started using the 10 micron 1000 equatorial mount, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera, Tokina AT-x 200mm f2.8 camera lens and Astrodon 50mm narrowband square filter set. He filmed many details with a longer focal length, using the 12 “Meade scope with reducer before 2014. He then started using Celestron EDGE 11 “The reduced camera was Lodestar and Lodestar II. The netizens praised the photographer’s dedication.