View bigger. Part of JP Metsavainio’s new Milky Way Mosaic – 125 degree sky from Taurus to Cygnus – 2009 to 2021. Image via JP Metsavainio.
JP Metsavainio is a Finnish astrophotographer who released his mega-project on March 16, 2021: an astonishing mosaic of our Milky Way galaxy stretching across the night sky. Metsavainio wrote on his blog:
It took nearly twelve years to gather enough data for this high-resolution gigapixel-class mosaic image of the Milky Way. The total exposure time used is approximately 1,250 hours between 2009 and 2021.
He did it all using his own little observatory in Oulu, Finland, with just a 12-inch telescope and photographic equipment. Metsavainio’s Milky Way Panorama consists of 234 individual images, each created in isolation as a work of art. Together these hours translate into an image of 1.7 gigapixels, 100,000 pixels wide.
Within a 125 arc-minute region stretching from the constellation of Taurus the Bull to the constellation of Cygnus the Swan, it took Finnish astrophotographer JP Metsavainio 12 years to view a deep and detailed panorama of our Milky Way Galaxy stretching across the night. sky and sew together. Image via JP Metsavainio.
View bigger. The final panorama of the Milky Way stretches across 125 degrees of sky. Metsavainio made this photo mosaic with the help of special filters, in which only certain wavelengths were transmitted. As a result, the colors you can see in this image come from light emitted by 3 ionized elements, that is, elements that have lost one or more electrons in their atoms; hydrogen (H-alpha), sulfur (S II) and oxygen (O III). Image via JP Metsavainio.
Overviews of the 234 individual images, photographed for a total of 1250 hours, that Metsavainio used to create his panorama. Image via JP Metsavainio.
Metsavainio told EarthSky how it all started:
I decided to create a large mosaic image of the Milky Way more than 10 years ago. A the time I was aware it would take at least a decade to complete (and work is still ongoing). As a visual artist, the composition of the image means a lot to me. Over the years I have shot hundreds of individual targets from the Milky Way. Every photo taken is an independent work of art. At the same time, I always kept in mind the needs of the final great composition. This is like having a short-term plan in action, but at the same time with a long-term plan behind everything.
Finnish astrophotographer JP Metsavainio has captured a detailed and deep panorama of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image via JP Metsavainio
Metsavainio’s project has recently attracted a lot of attention, and rightly so. The extreme details and depth are reminiscent of images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
An illustration of how the panorama was pieced together over time. Image via JP Metsavainio.
Metsavainio’s observatory is located in the center of his hometown Oulu on the west coast of Finland and thus is subject to a fair amount of light pollution. This is why it filters and supposedly measures the light narrow band emissions; that is, it simply lets light through narrow windows at specific optical wavelengths – at the wavelengths of ionized hydrogen (H-alpha), sulfur, and oxygen (S II and O III).
Metsavainio first created these images with art in mind, but in a scientific way. He told EarthSky:
I have no scientific ambitions, but my photos comply with the rules of scientific imaging. They have been used for some scientific purposes before and have that kind of value too. As a visual artist I like to give people a visual experience, even if they have no idea what they are looking at.
And indeed the line between science and art can be good at times, especially when it comes to astrophotography. NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), for example, contains many of Metsavainio’s images, explaining the science seen in each of them (recent examples here and here).
We highly recommend visiting JP Metsavainio’s webpage to view a high-resolution version of his Milky Way panorama and the images that make up it, as well as for more details on how he put this project together.
Below are two close-ups of regions in the great panorama:
The bow fronts that squeeze around an area where a star once exploded are visible on the right side of this image. The supernova remnant is called G65.3 + 5.7, and this image required 60 hours of exposure. The moon at the bottom left shows the scale of this image. Image via JP Metsavainio.
The California Nebula, which takes its name from the state of California, is located in the lower left of the large panorama image. The moon (bottom left) shows the scale of this image. Image via JP Metsavainio.
Great results can be achieved with simple tools. Metsavainio used this small observatory in the center of the Finnish city of Oulu to observe the Milky Way. Image via JP Metsavainio.
In short, Finnish astrophotographer JP Metsavainio has photographed the Milky Way for nearly 12 years, merging 234 separate images to form a large panorama of our galaxy.
Source: Milky Way, 12 years, 1250 hours of exposure and 125 x 22 degrees sky
