Astrophotographer creates a remarkable mosaic of the Milky Way galaxy

An astrophotographer recently did the unthinkable by capturing the Milky Way! Finnish photographer JP Metsavainio spent the last 12 years putting together 234 frames of images at 125 degrees to create a mosaic of the sky. 

NASA says that the Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years long, implying taking a picture is rather…. difficult!

The panorama created by the photographer shows 20 million stars and was finished on March 16. Each image part of the mosaic is an artwork in its own right and has been made available on his blog. 

Here's the full mosaic: 

Metsavainio claims that an image of this scale did not exist before, and that was the rationale behind his pursuit of the photographs. He used an array of different camera tools - lenses and telescopes at his observatory in northern Finland to capture the mind-blowing images. 

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In conversation with CNN, the photographer said that he first uses image processing software to adjust colour, and then puts the panels together on a photo editing software.

He also said that one of his favourite images is of remnants of a dead star, which happens after the supernova! Metsavainio claims to do this work to show everyone how wonderful the world is, and intends to continue photographing the miracles of universe.