clipped from: www.abc.net.au   
Dani Cooper

Stunning pictures of nebulae have been captured as part of the first optical digital survey of the northern section of the Milky Way.

Rosette Nebula

More than 50 astronomers worldwide, including Associate Professor Quentin Parker of the Anglo-Australian Observatory, have been tracking light emitted by hydrogen ions.

They used the wide-field camera on the 2.5 metre Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands.

200 million objects have been catalogued as part of the so-called IPHAS survey, which was conducted over 212 nights between September 2003 and December 2005
results are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and online as a result of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance
targeting the hydrogen marker the group was able to look at some of the "least understood stars in the galaxy, those in the early and very late stages of their life cycles".
This is a substantial and significant survey which aims to eventually contain 700-800 million objects