In a stunning talent show, a Finnish photographer created a panoramic 1.7 gigapixel image of the Milky Way, which took him 12 years to click. JP Metsavainio up to 12 years and 1200 hours of exposure to get the perfect picture of the entire galaxy. The mosaic-like image contains 20 million stars that exist in the vast Milky Way.
Metsavainio, an astrophotographer by profession, started the herculean project in 2009. He began to focus on different parts of the galaxy and later stitched the images together to create the complete mosaic. The work is 100,000 pixels wide and contains 234 different mosaic panels.
After his blog, the photographer wrote that the reason it took so long to complete the image was due to the massive size and proportions. “Another reason is that I shot most of the mosaic frames as individual compositions and published them as independent works of art,” Metsavainio wrote.
You can see all the photos here.
With Petapixel, Metsavainio said it was the first time such a detailed and ‘deep’ picture of the universe had been taken. “I think this is the first image the Milky Way ever shows in this resolution and depth at all three color channels.”
The individual mosaics were stitched together using Photoshop. The completed image spans 125 degrees of the sky and stretches from Taurus to Cygnus, while also containing the California Nebula, discovered in 1884 by EE Barnard. It also contains the Cave Nebula.