JP Metsavainio, an astrophotographer from Finland, has released a photo of the Milky Way panorama on his Twitter account. He spent 12 years and 1,250 hours capturing this phenomenal photo. The result of his hard work is the most spectacular work in astronomy. The photographer started his work in the year 2009 and completed the work in 2021.
JP Metsavainio spent 12 hours capturing images
It took him 12 years to complete the mosaic of the picture. The photo he released is approximately 100,000 pixels wide, has 234 individual mosaic panels stitched together, and 1.7 gigapixels. JP Metsavainio has given in his blog two reasons why it takes so long to take the photo. He said,
The reason for a long period is, of course, the size of the mosaic and the fact that the image is very deep. Another reason is that I composed most of the mosaic frames as individual compositions and published 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 photo, his processing workflow remained constant. He said the total exposure time is over 1,250 hours and some frames have more exposure time than others. The photo shows some extremely faint objects, such as an extremely fuzzy supernova remnant W63, the Cygnus Shell. It lies about six degrees above the North American nebula and can be seen as a light blue ring. He said,
I spent about 100 hours for this SNR alone.
Image mapped colors of 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, the other large and faint supernova remnant in Cygnus can be seen on the right side of the image. G65.5 + 5.7 is the size of the more famous Veil Nebula. For this SNR alone, there are more than 60 exposure hours.
A close-up of the main image shows the Sharpless 124 at the top and the Cocoon Nebula with a dark gas stream at the bottom. Credit: JP Metsavainio www.astroanarchy.zenfelio.com
Equipment used for the photo
He has used different optical configurations for this mosaic image over the years. Until 2014 he used an old Meade LX200 GPS 12 “scope, QHY9 astrocam, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics and Baader narrowband filter set. After 2014 he started using 10 micron 1000 equatorial mount, Apogee Alta U16 astrocamera, Tokina AT-x 200mm f2.8 camera lens and the Astrodon 50mm square narrowband filter set. He shot a lot of detail with longer focal length by using Meade 12 “scope with reducer for 2014. Then he started using Celestron EDGE 11” and reducer Quider’s camera is Lodestar and Lodestar II. Netizens have praised the photographer’s dedication.