The northern portion of the Cygnus Loop, as seen in an enormous new panorama from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and WIYN partners

Looking for a stunning new desktop image to wrap up the year? Try this: it’s an amazing panorama of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant located 1,500 light-years away in the constellation (you guessed it) Cygnus. The full-size image, acquired with the wide-field Mosaic camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona, is a staggering 600 millionpixels in size — over 1.68 gigabytes — making it one of the largest astronomical images ever made!

See the full image (and links to download larger versions) below:

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Read the rest of One of the Largest Astronomical Images Ever Made (314 words)

© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: astrophotography, Cygnus Loop, Kitt Peak, NGC 6960, NGC 6992, NOAO, Pickering's Triangle, space photo, supernova remnant

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