Would anyone be interested in a collaboration to image the entire plane of the Milky Way?
I have already completed the Southern Milky Way plane using a Sigma Art 40mm and ASI2400MC full frame sensor. By orienting each field so the plane was parallel to the short axis of the camera, I was able to complete the Southern plane in a couple of nights using an 8 field mosaic (Thank you Telescopius). Initial stitching was done with PTGui.
See
https://app.astrobin.com/u/profbriannz?i=vvddlv#gallery
Living at 45 South, I really can’t access much above Dec +10, so I am looking for someone who might be interested to do the Northern half. You would need to have access to dark skies, full frame OSC and a 40mm fast lens (the mosaic above is drizzled).
I would like to use this for an immersive public display (think 2.4m high lightbox trade displays arranged in a 3m-diameter circle) with the image professionally finished and edited by people who do this sort of the things to the exacting standards artists who exhibit their work at this scale in museums. This is expensive so I am also applying for arts council funding.
The kit and experience used to take these images amounts to $10000+, so similar sums on visualization would - I suspect - need to be spent. However, as part of any collaboration, I would be happy to discuss more cost-effective ways to do this.
I am also working with @James Tickner and @Michael Ring on this, primarily as an offshoot of the ABC survey. James is also working on improving the mosaicing.
An earlier flat version of this 2m× 7m as been exhibited in my local museums/art galleries, and now my local international airport is showing interest for their arrivals hall. Feedback form the museums has been really good so far, particularly when combined with an astronomy talk.
Anyone interested? If so, please send me a message.