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If you could go far away from the Earth and look around the entire sky –what would you see?Such was the goal of theAll-SkyMilky Way Panorama 2.0 project of Axel Mellinger. Presented aboveis the result: adigital compilation of over 3,000images comprising the highest resolutiondigital panorama of the entire night sky yet created. An interactive zoom version, featuring over 500 million pixels, can be foundhere.Every fixed astronomical object visible to the unaided eye has been imaged, includingevery constellation,every nebula, andevery star cluster.Moreover, millions are individual stars arealsovisible, all in ourMilky Way Galaxy, and many athousand times fainter than a human can see.Dark filaments of dust lacecentral band of our Milky Way Galaxy,visible across the image center. The satellite galaxiesLarge andSmall Magellanic Clouds are visible on the lower right.This was not the first time Dr. Mellinger has embarked on such a project:the results of his first All-Sky Milky Way Panorama Project, taken usingphotographic film, are visiblehere

Interstellardust clouds and glowing nebulae abound in the fertileconstellation of Orion.One of thebrightest,M78, is centered in this colorful,wide field view, covering an areanorth of Orion’s belt.At a distance of about 1,500 light-years, thebluish reflection nebula isaround 5 light-years across.Its tint is due to dustpreferentiallyreflecting the blue lightof hot, young stars.Reflection nebula NGC 2071 is just to the left of M78.To the right of M78 and much more compact in appearance,the intriguing McNeil’s Nebula is a recentlyrecognized variable nebulaassociated withthe formation of a sun-like star.The remarkably deep exposure also brings out the region’s faint butpervasive reddish glow of atomic hydrogen gas.

In myth,Atlas holds up the heavens.But in this moonlit mountainscape, peaks of theHimalayanAnnapurna Rangeappear to prop up the sky as seen from Ghandruk, Nepal.From left to right the three main peaks are Annapurna South (7,219 meters),Hiunchuli (6,441 metes), andMachapuchare(6,995 meters).Of coursethe mountains are moving not the stars,the Earth’s rotationabout its axis causing the concentric star trails recorded in thetime exposure.Positioned above Annapurna South, theNorth Celestial Pole is easily identifiedas the point at the center of all the star trail arcs.The star Polaris, also known as theNorth Star, made the very short andbright arc closest to the North Celestial Pole.