This is the only image in the world showing the constellation Cygnus in such depth and detail, and it has taken 10 years to create.

J-P Metsavainio, 57, is a nature photographer who captures photons that have travelled millions of years through the vacuum of space to build meticulous creations of exquisite celestial detail.

He started his project to photograph Cygnus in 2010, and after finishing it in December 2020, he is ready to release it to the world where it will become part of the hottest new craze in the art collecting world – a non-fungible token (NFT).

And after compiling the spectacular image,he claims was able to identify a new stellar constellation in the form of a Chinese Dragon.

From his home in Oulu, Finland, J-P told Real Press what drove him to spend a decade creating his artwork.

He said: “The Chinese Dragon image is very special to me, it’s the first photo in a world, showing the whole constellation Cygnus at this accuracy and depth as a full-colour photo.

“I published the first smaller version of my Cygnus mosaic back in 2012 and at the same time found my Chinese dragon. It was much smaller at the time, 18 panels, but it now has 95 in it. It took ten years and about 600 exposure hours to get it finalised.”

J-P believes he was the first astrological expert to describe the hidden dragon that can be found in the constellation.

He explains some of the difficulties he faced creating the mosaic: “I have shot light emitted by the ionized elements to make this three-band colour image. Gas clouds in the photo are not lit by the starlight, they are way too large for that, and the radiation from the stars is ionizing elements in the gas clouds and makes them glow with light of their own.

“The principle is about the same as fluorescent tube lights. The colour of the light depends on the elements and amount of ionization and this photo shows the light emitted by ionized hydrogen, sulphur and oxygen.”

The artwork will be listed with SuperRare, a virtual marketplace for single edition digital art in about a month’s time.

SuperRare uses blockchain technology to show verifiable proof of history and provenance to prevent counterfeiting – creating one-of-a-kind, verifiable assets that are easy to trade.

This will be J-P’s first NFT release but the artist has plans to extend this: “Eventually there will be over a dozen very unique NFTs for sale, the last one will be my ‘Grand Mosaic of the Milky Way Galaxy’.”

NFTs have gained prominence recently as an artistic form of cryptocurrency and images, videos and music have sometimes achieved eye-watering prices.

Cygnus, a northern constellation in the Milky Way, is named after the Latin word for swan and is one of the more recognisable from Earth.

The final mosaic was a labour of love for J-P who faced many difficulties balancing the many parts of the constellation, particularly the two diffused and dark remnants of supernovas it contains – which alone took 170 hours of exposures to capture.

He likens the project to a love match: “When you spent a decade working with one photo to get it ready, it’s like a long marriage – the passionate love is slowly turning to a deeper connection and at the end you grow together and can’t live without the others company.”

But as in all marriages, it has its difficult phases says J-P: “As in marriage, during the years I have had friction in the relationship, even hate. But after desperate times the love always wins.

“I’m a perfectionist when dealing with my photography, and this feature is essential for a great result but it also can cause problems in relationship.

“There have been times when I almost got a divorce and started looking for another, easier target because I couldn’t get all of the extreme dim and difficult details I wanted.

He says many of these details were previously undiscovered because they are so dark, but despite the difficulties, he is glad he persisted: “Finally after long nights and hundreds of exposure hours I got what I was after.

“Now we can grow old together and I know I will always find something new in my beloved Chinese dragon.”

In February, NASA rewarded J-P’s efforts by featuring the image as its Astronomy Picture of the Day at https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210211.html.

Shooting his astronomical masterpieces from Finland’s North Ostrobothnia region, just 150 kilometres below the Arctic Circle, is both a blessing and a curse.

In winter he enjoys long dark nights in which he can chase the stars, but the opposite is true in summer when his many projects sit idle and await the end of the white nights before continuing.

But never idle himself, J-P intends to spend the enforced summer break upgrading his imaging system and observatory.

To further illustrate his final artwork, J-P created this short video to give viewers an idea where to find Cygnus and identify the hidden dragon.

More details on the many elements that can be seen in the mosaic can be found on J-P’s blog about it at https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cygnus-project-grande-finale-for-now.html.