00:00352 hours and 17 minutes.
00:03That's how long it took for amateur astrophotographer Cornelius Van Zulen to capture the ancient
00:07light from each of the 110 galaxies, star clusters and nebulas contained in this spectacular
00:13mosaic of the Messier catalogue.
00:15But wait, I hear you ask, what is the Messier catalogue?
00:18Well the Messier catalogue was created by the famed 18th century astronomer Charles Messier
00:23who sought to create a list of deep sky objects that could be mistaken for comets by his peers
00:28as they glowed in the night sky.
00:30Now Messier's catalogue has been revised numerous times since its creation and contains some
00:34of the most spectacular sights that you can see in the night sky from the Northern Hemisphere,
00:38including the Andromeda Galaxy M31, the Pleiades Open Star Cluster M45, and the Orion Nebula
00:45M42.
00:46Cut to the present day and the Messier catalogue has become a popular sightseeing checklist
00:50for amateur astronomers looking to explore the wonders of our universe that lurk beyond
00:54the boundaries of our solar system.
00:55Van Zuland was able to capture many of the Messier objects directly from the balcony of
01:00his house in Halo in the Netherlands using a pair of telescopes fitted with ZWO astronomy
01:05cameras and narrowband filters, though some of the targets proved to be a little bit trickier
01:09to get right.
01:10Doing this from the Netherlands was quite a challenge, explained Van Zuland.
01:14I often had to travel to a semi-dark field nearby to get a clear view of the horizon, which
01:18meant many nights sleeping in my car.
01:20But to be honest, I actually really enjoyed that part.
01:23It felt like camping.
01:24Van Zuland spent over a year and a half capturing every deep sky object in the Messier catalogue
01:29and painstakingly editing the data to create the gorgeous images that make up the collage
01:34today.
01:35As you might notice, some images are larger than others, and there's a reason for that
01:39too, continued Van Zuland.
01:40Those are my favorite images, and most of them have a personal story behind how they came
01:45to be, which makes the collage a bit more personal and meaningful to me.
01:49As always, be sure to head on over to Space.com for more stunning astrophotos along with all
01:53the latest news in spaceflight, astronomy and stargazing.
