In a beautiful show of talent, a Finnish photographer captured a 1.7 gigapixel panoramic image of the Milky Way, which took him 12 years to click. JP Metsavainio up to 12 years and 1,200 hours of exposure to get the perfect view of the entire galaxy. The mosaic-like image features 20 million stars that exist in the vast Milky Way.
An astrophotographer by trade, Metsavainio started the massive project in 2009. He started to focus on different parts of the galaxy and later stitched the images together to create the complete mosaic. The finished work is 100,000 pixels wide and contains 234 different mosaic panels.
When he went to his blog, the photographer wrote that the reason it took so long to finish the photo was due to its sheer size and proportions. “Another reason is that I have included most of the mosaic frames as individual compositions and published them as independent works of art,” Metsavainio wrote.
View all photos here.
Speaking to Petapixel, Metsavainio said this was the first time such a detailed and “deep” picture of the universe has been taken. “I think this is the first image to ever show the Milky Way at this resolution and depth on all three color channels.”
The individual mosaics are sewn together with Photoshop. The completed image spans 125 degrees of the sky and extends from Taurus to Cygnus, while also showing the California Nebula, discovered in 1884 by E.E.Barnard. It also includes the Cave Nebula.