The Orion Nebula is such a difficult object to get the inner detail. At its heart are four stars known as the Trapezium, but you rarely ever see them as they over-expose so easily. With as many exposures they took to make this panel, I was hoping to have seen the Trapezium. It's not hard to understand why, as you loose so much other detail and brilliance of the nebula if you do expose for the Trapezium. There's no wonder this patch of the sky is one of the most photographed of the entire sky.
2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
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Re: 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
#22The Orion Nebula is such a difficult object to get the inner detail. At its heart are four stars known as the Trapezium, but you rarely ever see them as they over-expose so easily. With as many exposures they took to make this panel, I was hoping to have seen the Trapezium. It's not hard to understand why, as you loose so much other detail and brilliance of the nebula if you do expose for the Trapezium. There's no wo…
Orion is home to a whole bunch of stuff that the human eye cannot see that you see in this photo, especially Barnard's Loop and the Lambda Orionis Ring, which together occupy pretty much the entire size of the constellation. They are huge objects in the night sky, yet at H-alpha wavelength they appear too dim to the naked eye to see.
I've been doing a lot of landscape astrophotography lately in which I show these objects rising and setting over familiar landscapes to give people an idea of what our human vision is "missing out" on. Here's one of Orion that I took with a 28mm lens -- i.e. pretty wide angle:
Re: 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can I download the full scale image from somewhere?
How big of a wall would that require to display at 1:1? I have a wall I'm willing to donate to the cause.
Assuming a 50,000^2 pixel image at 600 dpi it’s just under 7 foot by 7 foot. You can likely play around with the DPI to fit most any wall, but I don’t know the aspect ratio.
Re: 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
#24It is fascinating that there is probably life on some of those stars and its sad that humans will never able to explore places far into space.
If by ‘explore’ you mean ‘visit’ then sure. Otherwise, we pretty much know what to expect - astronomy and astrophysics are no joke. On a human scale, visiting another galaxy means just seeing more of the same, so why even bother. Diversity of life forms? I think we have a better chance to invent and explore it in labs here on earth.
We are always expecting more of the same, until it isn't. We are constantly observing unexpected things. Both with regards to life (on Earth, obviously, since we didn't find life anywhere else) and with regards to celestial bodies and physics.
And this is to be expected. We are building models to match our observations. "More of the same" is the basic assumption, but it doesn't mean it is true. That's why we experiment: to verify our models and if found wrong, to update them. The more things our model takes into account, the more we can expect it to explain everything, meaning the more we can expect to find "more of the same", but it is never a given.
I mean, we thought we had the universe almost completely figured out in the early 1900s, with just a few details remaining. The "details" turned out to be quantum physics and general relativity...
Re: 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
#25Image itself in high resolution can be found here: https://orion2020v5b.spaceforeverybody.com/
It's funny – at such high fidelity, the glow from all of the distant stars and galaxies make it look like light pollution.
Good observation. I assume that's because it's "overexposed" to bring out the nebulas etc.?
Zooming in all the way, the pure "black" areas between stars also seem to have a fair bit of sensor noise that probably plays a part too.
Re: 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
#26Image itself in high resolution can be found here: https://orion2020v5b.spaceforeverybody.com/
Can I download the full scale image from somewhere?
Try something like this.
https://ophir.alwaysdata.net/dezoomify/dezoomify.html
Re: 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
#27[deleted]
Re: 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
#28The thing that surprises me is how stationary everything in space seems to be, in order for this to have been possible.
But everything is moving, right? So how could a series of pictures over this long of a time work out to be so clear?
Re: 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's funny – at such high fidelity, the glow from all of the distant stars and galaxies make it look like light pollution.
Good observation. I assume that's because it's "overexposed" to bring out the nebulas etc.? Zooming in all the way, the pure "black" areas between stars also seem to have a fair bit of sensor noise that probably plays a part too.
There are no pure black areas between stars, and that's not (just) sensor noise. It's not very wrong to say that every single pixel in that image holds at least one galaxy. If you collect enough light, you will find something interesting to look at.
Re: 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took 5 Years to Complete
#30The thing that surprises me is how stationary everything in space seems to be, in order for this to have been possible. But everything is moving, right? So how could a series of pictures over this long of a time work out to be so clear?
a combination of things, the distances you're looking at are mind-numbingly huge. you might think it's a long way to the chemist but that's just peanuts to space. This means that even though things are moving, and fast, they still look like they're in the same place from this far away. Along with that, the images aren't a single exposure over years, but days at a time at worst. that means that any minor movement can be adjusted for when combining the images for the final result.