Finnish astrophotographer spends 1,000 hours over 12 years creating the Milky Way mosaic

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Composed of By Eoin McSweeney, CNN

Capturing the panoramas of the Milky Way, the galaxy we are in, might seem like a daunting task, given that, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, it is about 100,000 light-years away.

But Finnish astrophotographer JP Metsavainio spent almost 12 years sewing 234 frames to create a 125-degree mosaic of the sky. The panorama, which has 20 million stars, captures the space between the constellations Taurus and Cygnus and was completed on March 16.

“Astronomical photography is one of the most difficult forms of nature photography,” Metsavainio, a professional artist, told CNN on Friday. “My mosaic image is generally very deep, which means it shows extremely weak targets and formations in the gas clouds of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.”

Each mosaic image is an independent work of art and available for viewing on Metsavainio’s blog. He claims that such an image has never existed before, this being one of the reasons why he decided to dedicate thousands of hours to the project.
The clear, dark sky, far from the light pollution of cities is vital for astrophotography, the photography of astronomical objects, an activity that happens all over the world. Patience is also essential, as it can take hours or even days to capture a single photo on a long exposure.

Metsavainio used a series of modified lenses and telescopes for the camera at his observatory in northern Finland, near the Arctic Circle. It first uses image processing software to adjust levels and color before merging separate panels into Adobe PhotoShop, using stars as indicators to match the correct frames.

The astrophotographer said that his favorite images are of supernova remnants, a phenomenon that is formed after the explosion of a star. Some of them are visible in his panorama, and Cygnus Shell, a remnant of a particularly weak supernova that can be seen as a pale blue ring near the North American nebula, took the astrophotographer only 100 hours to create.

His blog has had 750,000 visitors since the photo was published, compared to an average of about 1,000 a day.

Another photo of the Sharpless 132 nebula that makes up a small part of JP Metsavainio's Milky Way mosaic

Another photo of the Sharpless 132 nebula that makes up a small part of JP Metsavainio’s Milky Way mosaic Credit: The kindness of JP Metsavainio

“The reason I do my slow work is practically an endless curiosity, I like to see and show how wonderful our world is,” he told CNN. “It’s a lonely, slow job, but every time I see results, I’m just as excited as the first time.”

Along with guitarist and astrophysicist Queen Brian May, Metsavainio participated in a live virtual broadcast in September, hosted by the Science Museum in London. At the time, he was publishing a 3D book about cosmic clouds, along with musician and editor of the Astronomy Magazine David J Eicher.

A devoted lover of the night sky, Metsavainio intends to continue his work, but with a different goal.

“We’ve photographed the night sky with relatively short focal length optics in recent years,” Metsavainio said. “In the future, I will return to an instrument with a longer focal length.”

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