Heavenly photos from J-P Metsavainio. J-P Metsavainio is a Finnish astrophotographer living in Northern Finland at 65N. His private Astro Anarchy Observatory is located in the very center of the city of Oulu. For this reasons he specialized in narrowband imaging of emission nebulae. City center observatory. PER ASPERA AD ASTRA!
Now that our Moon is once again at the centre of global attention—driven by the Artemis mission’s journey around it—I feel compelled to share this artwork again. I was deeply moved when Michael Collins—the Apollo 11 and Gemini 10 astronaut, author, explorer, and artist—tweeted these kind words about my work on 19 April 2021: https://twitter.com/AstroMCollins/status/1384194949009211393 The news of…
The imaging season of 2026 is soon coming to an end here at 65°N. I managed to capture a couple of hours of new data for two northern globular clusters, M3 and M13. My new processing method reveals extremely faint stars and shows that these clusters have a much larger angular diameter than is usually seen in images of them. Both LRGB images have a total exposure time of about four and a half…
This winter has been extremely cloudy up here at 65°N, but I managed to use those few clear moments to capture enough data for a new cosmic artwork from our night sky. IC405, the Flaming Star Nebula in Auriga, is a beautiful velvet-like emission nebula with a reflection nebula component. I somehow managed to capture good exposures of the reflection component despite my light-polluted conditions. I…
This came as a complete surprise. My photographic work has been selected for Amateur Photographer ’s annual feature The Best Photos of the Year 2025 — a curated selection highlighting outstanding photographic work from across the world and across all genres. Despite its historic name, Amateur Photographer is one of the oldest and most respected photography magazines in the world , founded in 1884…
This is my final image of the year 2025: The Flying Dragon Nebula , Sharpless 114 (Sh2-114). Captured with my new 14" Celestron Edge telescope, equipped with a 0.7× reducer and an Apogee ALTA U9000M camera with 12-micron pixels, the system is perfectly matched to my typical seeing conditions. It delivers a resolution of 0.92 arcseconds per pixel . This image is a good example of how deep I can…
Location: Hallituskatu 12 — just beside Oulu City Hall Open daily from 13:00 to 18:00 until 23 December 2025. The JiiPee.art Showroom will officially open on 9 January 2026. I have opened a permanent showroom in my hometown of Oulu, where my photography finds a physical home. The space invites visitors to explore a wide collection of astronomical and nature images—moments captured from the…
This beautiful and symmetric planetary nebula drifts in the constellation Cygnus at a distance of about 4,000 light-years from us. Ju 1 (PN G075.5+01.7) was discovered in 2007 by amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich . With an angular diameter of about 260 arcseconds , the nebula is extremely faint, and its position against a backdrop of diffuse emission made it particularly difficult to detect. My…
ISLANDS IN INFINITY, GALAXIES 3D Buy a copy (UK store) https://shop.londonstereo.com/islands-in-infinity-galaxies-3-d.html You will be able to purchase the book directly from me as soon as the copies arrive here — in about two weeks or so. I’ll announce the opening of my online book shop both on social media and here. From left to right: Prof. Ward-Thompson, Sir Brian May and yours truly Our new…
I have been an astrophotographer for about thirty years, and for almost as long, I have been converting my photographs into various three-dimensional formats. My 3D images and animations are always based on real astronomical data. The result is an approximation of reality — never a guesswork creation. I haven’t often published my 3D studies in my blog or on social media, since they usually require…
In this image, I have combined my new shot of the Witch’s Broom Nebula with my recent photo “ ICARUS, the Final Flight ” to form a two-frame mosaic. I love discovering fresh compositions from well-known targets — in this case, the beautiful Veil Nebula supernova remnant. A dramatic view to the Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Click for a large image, 1500 x 3600 pixels A mapped color image from a…
My latest photo shows a small portion of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant in Cygnus. I have wanted to photograph this tiny, knot-like object for a long time, making it the main character of the composition. I couldn’t find any catalog number for this object — if someone knows it, please drop a comment and I’ll add it here. After I stacked all the data and saw the full-resolution image for the…
This is my first-light image for the autumn season 2025. I collected a total of 34 hours of exposure time over a period of about two months for this two-frame mosaic. The seeing conditions were relatively good for my location, with FWHM values ranging between 1.6 and 2.5 throughout the sessions. Witch's Broom Nebula Click for a large image, 3500 x 1800 pixels A mapped color image from a light…
While waiting to get back to imaging, I completed an artwork commissioned by the Art Museum of Oulu. This is part of the Art Cabinet project, and I was given complete freedom to fill the cabinet with my art. The cabinet measures 120 × 110 × 65 cm and has two doors in the front and one on the top. My idea was to evoke a sense of infinity when the doors are opened. To achieve this, I used the…
PuWe 1 is one of the largest and faintest planetary nebula known to exist. The nebula was created when a red giant star blew off its outer layers near the end of its life. The gas is energized by the remaining core of the star, which is called a white dwarf. However it is very faint due to its large size. As planetary nebulae expand they become fainter because the gas moves further from the white…
I published yesterday a detail picture of the Soul nebula , IC 1848. Earlier this year I shot another long focal length photo of the IC 1848 , those two photos are overlapping so I was able to make a two frame mosaic out of them, total exposure time 30h Soul Nebula, a Two Frame Panoramic Mosaic Image Click for a large image, 2800 x 1700 pixels A mapped color image from a light emitted by an…
Soul nebula, IC 1848, has been my target many times during the years. This time I have shot some details of the nebula with my current long focal length imaging system . A Detail of Soul Nebula Click for a large image, 2000 x 2000 pixels A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue. Original resolution 6500 x 6500 pixels The Soul…
This is one of the targets I’ve been imaging for decades using various equipment—from camera lenses (150–300mm) to large reflecting telescopes ranging from 11" to 14". (My older photos can be seen at end of this blog post) This time, I used new imaging setup to capture a high-resolution image of Sh2-155. The seeing conditions weren’t ideal, but I’m fairly happy with the results. Sharpless 155…
I just published an image of the unnamed pillar-like formation inside the Heart Nebula. I've created a two-frame mosaic from the new photo, showing its relation to Melotte 15 at the center of the Heart Nebula. As is usually the case, these pillar-like formations point toward the source of ionization. When radiation pressure (solar wind) push gas and dust away from a newborn star cluster, denser…
This is an object in the Heart Nebula that I have captured from time to time. M y previous photo was taken in 2012. This new photo reveals more details, even though the exposure time for H-alpha light was only 5 hours. The pillar-like formations are typically pointing toward a source of ionization, in this case, the more famous Melotte 15. I haven't been able to find a name for this beautiful…
I have shot this emission nebula in Perseus several times during the years and every time felt that I got more out of it. I have wide field and mosaic images including the NGC 1491 as well as longer focal length photos with various reflecting telescopes. Some of them are included in the blog post as an example NGC 1491, the Fossil Footprint Nebula Click for a large image, 1800 x 2000 pixels In…
This is a new photo of this beautiful emission area in Cassiopeia. I'm using a long focal length telescope, Celestron EDGE HD 14" at the moment for a high resolution imaging work. This tool together with a second hand Apogee Alta U 9000M camera with a 12 micron pixels delivers deep images with lots of details. Detail of my Soul Click for a large image, 2000 x 2000 pixels A mapped color image from…
I shot material for this new photo back in February, 10 hours of exposures total for three narrowband color channels. (H-alpha, O-III and S-II) MELOTTE 15 Click for a large image, 2000 x 2000 pixels A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue A Closeup Click for a large image, 2000 x 2000 pixels Melotte 15 in the Heart Nebula Click…
I managed to get 17 hours of H-alpha light for the HFG1 and now I'm able to do color photo out of it. This is a difficult target, very diffused and large, I tried to keep my processing kind of modest to bring out delectate nature of an old and dim planetary Nebula. Total exposure time is 37 hours and signal wasn't the best possible but I'm happy with this result. HFG1 ( Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 )…
I made a new composition out of my new NGC 281 material, the original composition and technical details can be seen here: https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2025/01/new-photo-of-ngc-281.html This new poster format composition brings out the dynamic nature of this target better. NGC 281 Click for a large image, 2000x2600 pixels A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements,…
This is a new photo of the Soul Nebula in Cassiopeia. A total of 20 hours of H-alpha exposure, along with 6 hours of S-II and O-III combined, allows me to capture intricate details of this relatively bright astronomical cloud of gas and dust. A Detail of IC1848, the Soul Nebula Click for a large image, 2100x2300 pixels A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, sulfur=red,…