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Bartosz Wojczynski: The Milky Way Center (Gigapixel Series)

Product description

Immerse yourself in the awe-inspiring "The Milky Way Center (Gigapixel Series)" by Bartosz Wojczynski
This extraordinary photograph captures the Galactic Center, the rotational heart of our Milky Way, a region dominated by the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, which boasts 4.100 million solar masses.
Located 26,670 light-years away in the direction of the constellations Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius, the Galactic Center is where the Milky Way shines brightest. 
This captivating image features a dense star field, with around 10 million stars within one parsec of the center, including red giants, massive supergiants, and Wolf-Rayet stars from a burst of star formation about a million years ago.

One of the largest images of the cosmos ever taken from Earth

Captured using a unique observational setup with two identical telescopes optimized for astrophotography, Wojczynski collected this detailed mosaic over the course of a single night. This kind of configuration allows for covering large portions of the night sky in a short time - the entire photographic material was collected over the course of a single night. Each of the 110 panes (55 per telescope) was exposed for 4 minutes, resulting in a total resolution of nearly 2.5 gigapixels. 
The result is one of the largest photographs of the cosmos ever taken from the surface of our planet, with unparalleled detail and an abundance of deep sky objects included in a single image.
This picture was created on a desert farm in Namibia, many miles from the nearest settlement, in an area completely free of artificial light pollution.
Photo details


Date & Time: 2021 May 13th; 00:15 ~ 04:45 CAT

Location: Tivoli Astro-Farm, Namibia

Optics: 2 x Takahashi Epsilon 130D

Camera: 2 x Nikon D810A

Mount: Losmandy G11

Guider

Lacerta MGEN II
ZWO 30/120 guide scope



Composition

110 pane mosaic (11 columns, 10 rows); 55 per camera
Mosaic planned in Periapsis



Exposure

4 minutes per pane
430 mm, f/3.3, ISO 400
7 hours 20 minutes total



Calibration

100 bias frames per camera
80 flat frames per camera



Processing

DeepSkyStacker: calibrate
Microsoft ICE: compose mosaic
Adobe Photoshop CC: subtract skylight, ACR filter