Unraveling the universe with astrophotography
Living in Shenzhen, China, astrophotography allows Shanji to step outside his bedroom and peek into the wonders of the universe. To him, snapping images of distant space phenomena is much like searching for hidden treasures in the sky; he utilizes specialized telescopes and cameras to track objects and render images.
“Deep space photographers take photos of things we usually can’t see,” Shanji said. “We live in big cities where light pollution is serious, and we can’t even see many stars. But with astrophotography, you can capture such beautiful pictures.”
Astrophotography, reliant on long exposure, requires precise tracking of celestial bodies as they shift positions relative to the lens. Shanji could not achieve a high enough level of stability to take clear shots as he used a phone camera at the time.
“My setup at home was really simple, so the tracking was shaking a lot. The footage didn’t turn out great, and it was way worse than I expected,” Shanji said.
To improve the quality of his photographs, he replaced his old Celestron with a more advanced Skywatcher EQ6-R telescope and purchased a mirrorless camera and 3D equatorial mount for accurate tracking. Even with the improvement, his rendered images still lacked detail due to light pollution and lens limitations. Sifting through articles online, Shanji soon found that he could remove the infrared filter for better astronomy imaging, revealing faint deep-sky objects.
“After [that upgrade], I traveled to a place with even less light pollution — in Heyuan, Guangdong, far away from people,” Shanji said. “That’s when I finally captured my first deep space shot I was satisfied with, right on the 28th day of the Chinese New Year.”
With more skills under his belt, Shanji relocated his camera and telescope to the Haba Lake Observatory with clearer skies. With a special “GoTo” mount, he was able to control the telescope remotely on a computer from the comfort of his own home, even as it sits more than 2000 km away.
Shanji first finds a target to photograph on Stellarium, an astronomy software that allows users to view a 3D render of the night sky. Once he sets the telescope to shoot a specific celestial object, the equatorial mount keeps the telescope aligned with the North Pole to compensate for the Earth’s rotation, while the GoTo mount rotates the contraption to track the object as it moves across the sky. Afterwards, he compiles hundreds of photos and overlays them to generate the final image.
“In high school, most of my time goes to studying. As for astronomy photography, it does take time, but during the winter and summer breaks, I can focus on learning it,” Shanji said. “Before I had this observatory, I couldn’t shoot every month—maybe only once or twice during the breaks. The shooting time isn’t actually very long: processing the photos takes more time. I usually do that on weekends after class.”
