Stunning 550-megapixel picture captured with a new-generation consumer Telescope

546 megapixels is the full resolution of this panoramic view of a region of the Milky Way photographed using a new-generation telescope built for mainstream users. In addition to a breathtaking resolution, this amazing deep view of the Carina and Centaurus constellations is the result of 336 hours of exposure time: a picture that deserves to be featured in our blog!

Detailed views of the Carina-Centaurus region of the Milky captured in a 550-megapixels panoramic view with a recently-released consumer telescope (vaonis.com)

★ A 546-megapixel photograph? How is it even possible?

Such a resolution is so high that it would need 65 4K-ultra-HD TV screens to be stitched together so that our eyes could take the best of this tremendous amount of details. Even worse when we carry out the same calculation with lower resolution Full-HD screens: 264 screens would catch up with this resolution!

Even though our digital cameras and our smartphones are making huge improvements in terms of sensor's resolution, the best ones available for general public use are averaging 40 Millons of pixels (or megapixels). Moreover, the camera sensor used here by the Stellina Telescope - more info in the next section - features a modest resolution of 6.4 megapixels, that is to say far away from the 546 megapixels composing this image. How was it perform then?

This highly detailed image was made thanks to a 168-photos panorama. Added to the fact this panoramic method benefits from having a resolution 168 times higher than the one of a single frame, another advantage is to capture a widely spread region of the sky that would not be entirely visible with a single photo.

Telescopes are indeed very powerful instruments capable of observing the tiniest celestial objects our eyes can not see, that being the inherent asset of a telescope: magnifying the visible size of planets, galaxies, nebulae and other jewels of the sky in order to be reached by our eyes. Nevertheless, the deep sky objects are not always that tiny as we might think. The Carina nebula is for example so wide that it covers a zone equal to 15 times a full moon! Therefore, we easily understand a telescope is often too powerful for photographing elongated objects in a single shot, that being the inherent drawback of a telescope.

To get rid of the narrow field of view of a telescope, the panoramic technique (also named mosaic in astronomy) consist in capturing a grid of several individual frames that are then all assembled in a dedicated software like the one used by our smartphones.

This project shown here used more than 200,000 individual images totalizing 336 hours of exposure  time and was inspired by the viral "1,060-hour image of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) captured by Amateur Astronomers" we shared on this blog. 

However, this Carina nebula mosaic was obtained differently: using a smart and autonomous telescope, Stellina, specifically designed for mainstream users...

★ A new way to capture the Universe

Stellina Telescope. Credit: Vaonis.

A few time ago, imaging stars with a telescope needed a minimum amount of knowledge or skills and was only reserved to a minority of keen users. Making high-resolution panoramic views of the sky like the one obtained by Stellina would have required an even more advanced experience in astrophotography.

Today, as the technology is evolving, it is now possible to capture such high-quality astro pictures with a compact, automatic and ready-to-use telescope that communicates with your connected devices. The telescope behind this feat relies on this technology: Stellina (meaning "Little Star" in italian), a smart observation station developed by a French start-up called Vaonis. 

Entirely robotized, this telescope of a new era does not need any external help or adjustment and initializes itself within seconds. User only has to select the object is willing to photograph among a rich database and the scope will point and shoot to the right target. Then, the stacking process of the pictures starts and the real-time result is automatically sent to the user's smartphone or tablet, through an app.

This picture was carried out by the technical team to illustrate and promote an upcoming new feature that will be available in Stellina: capturing ultra-high resolution panoramic view of the night sky simply by pressing a button.

All details regarding this new-generation telescope can be found on the company's website: vaonis.com

★ Carina Nebula: the star of the night-sky!

Close-up view of Carina Nebula as captured with Stellina Telescope

This 546-megapixel mosaic highlights one of the largest nebulae of the sky: Carina Nebula (or NGC 3372), top right corner. Exclusively visible from the Southern Hemisphere, it is known as one of the best targets in amateur astronomy thanks to its impressive brightness (+1.0 magnitude) and its huge angular size, 4 times higher than Orion nebula's or even 16 times higher than full moon's.

Located at about 8,500 light years away from Earth and stretching out over 200 light years, the Carina Nebula is a rich star-forming zone and contains reams of clusters whose stars are the most massive and hottest of the galaxy.

In the neighborhood of the Carina Constellation can be found other emission nebulae, that can be spotted in Stellina's mosaic: the Statue of Liberty Nebula (center) and the Running Chicken Nebula (bottom left corner).

Along with the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Carina Nebula is one of the most specular regions of both hemispheres to observe and to photograph!