In a magnificent display of talent, a Finnish photographer has created a 1.7 gigapixel panoramic image of the Milky Way, which took 12 years to click. JP Metsavainio with 12 years and 1,200 hours of exposure in order to get the perfect picture of the entire galaxy. The mosaic-shaped image contains 20 million stars that exist in the vast expanse of the Milky Way.
A professional astrophotographer, Metsavainio began the Herculean project in 2009. He began focusing on different parts of the galaxy and later put the images together to create the complete mosaic. The finished work is 100,000 pixels wide and contains 234 different mosaic panels.
Arriving at his blog, the photographer wrote that the reason it took so long to finish the image was due to its massive size and proportions. “Another reason is that I filmed most of the mosaic frames as individual compositions and published them as independent works of art,” Metsavainio wrote.
You can check out all the photos here.
Speaking to Petapixel, Metsavainio said it was the first time such a detailed and “deep” picture of the universe was taken. “I think this is the first image that shows the Milky Way at this resolution and depth in the three color channels.”
The individual mosaics were joined using Photoshop. The full image extends 125 degrees from the sky and extends from Taurus to Cygnus and also features the California Nebula, which was discovered in 1884 by EE Barnard. It also features the Cave Nebula.