JP Metsavainio, a Finnish astrophotographer, has posted a picture of the Milky Way panorama on his Twitter account. He has 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 began his work in 2009 and has completed the work in 2021.
JP Metsavainio spent 12 hours capturing image
It took twelve years to complete the mosaic of the image. The photo he posted is about 100,000 pixels wide, has 234 individual mosaic panels and 1.7 gigapixels. JP Metsavainio on his blog has given two reasons to take so long to capture the image. He said,
The reason for a long period of time is of course the size of the mosaic and the fact that this image is very deep. Another reason is that I have used most mosaic frames as individual compositions and published them as independent works of art.
The California Nebula, NGC 1499, can be seen at the bottom left of the large mosaic image. Credit: JP Metsavainio www.astroanarchy.zenfelio.com
For the image, its processing workflow remained constant. He said the total exposure time exceeds 1250 hours and that some of the frames have longer exposure time than others. In the image, there are some extremely dark objects visible such as an extremely weak W63 supernova remnant, the Cygnus Shell. It is located about six degrees from the North American nebula and can be seen as a pale blue ring. He said,
I spent about 100 hours on this SNR alone.
Image in colors mapped from the light emitted by ionized elements, hydrogen = green, sulfur = red and oxygen = blue. Credit: JP Metsavainio www.astroanarchy.zenfelio.com
According to the photographer’s blog, Cygnus ’other weak supernova remnant can be seen on the near edge of the image. G65.5 + 5.7 is as large as the most famous Veil Nebula. There are over 60 hours of exposure for this SNR alone.
A close-up of the main image shows the Sharpless 124 facing up and the Cocoon Nebula with a stream of dark gas at the bottom. Credit: JP Metsavainio www.astroanarchy.zenfelio.com
Equipment used for the image
Over the years he has used various optical configurations for this mosaic image. Until 2014, he used an old Meade LX200 12 “GPS telescope, QHY9 astrocamics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics and Baader narrowband filter set. After 2014, he started using 10 micron equatorial mount 1000, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera, The lens of the Tokina AT-x 200mm f2.8 camera and the 50mm Astrodon narrowband square filter set has shot many details with greater focal length using the Meade 12 “lens with reducer before 2014. Then began to use Celestron EDGE 11” The Quider camera has been Lodestar and Lodestar II, Internet users have praised the dedication of the photographer.