Greenwich At 6:30 pm on September 16, the online award ceremony of the annual Astrophotography Contest (APOY) hosted by Greenwich Royal Observatory arrived as scheduled. Astrophotography from China shines, two Chinese photographers born in the 1990s and one Chinese photographer born in the 2000s won the global championship and the Sun Group Championship, the Galaxy Group Championship and the Youth Group Championship. With the improvement of living standards and the advancement of photography equipment, Starry Sky Photography has flourished in China in recent years, and the number of photographers has seen a surge in growth, which is a deep reason why Chinese photographers continue to create good results in the annual astrophotography competition. Yangtze Evening News Ziniu Headlines reporter contacted these three young Chinese photographers and listened to them telling the story of the award-winning works being released...
Most prestigious astronomical photography competition
Three Chinese guys won 4 championships
Greenwich Annual Astronomical Photography Competition is the most prestigious and largest astronomical photography competition in the world. The works produced by this photography competition are regarded as the best starry sky photography works in the world.
At 6:30 pm on September 16, Greenwich time (early morning on September 17, Beijing time), the results of the 2021 Annual Astrophotography Competition were announced.
Young astrophotography from China Dong Shuchang won the championship of the astrophotography of the year and the championship of the sun group for its annulus photo taken in Tibet Ali region , and won the title of astrophotography of the year! The judges praised the fascinating work for a perfect combination of scientific, artistic and technological ingenuity in astrophotography.
Dong Shuchang's award-winning work "Annular Solar Eclipse" photo
The champion of the galaxy group is Wu Zhong (@A Wu on the Road). He spanned three regions in the northern and southern hemispheres and took panoramic photos of the circular galaxy.
Panoramic photo of the ring-shaped Galaxy taken by Wu Zhong
Youth Group champion was Wang Zhipu, who was only 15 years old when he participated. His winning work is a "family portrait" of the solar system. He is now a sophomore in high school.
"family portrait" photo of the solar system taken by Wang Zhipu
The most beautiful panoramic photo of the ring-shaped Milky Way
took two years to complete
Ziniu News once reported on February 5 that Wu Zhong's panoramic photo of the ring-shaped Milky Way was released behind the scenes.
Wu Zhong is a young man born in the 1990s in Sichuan. His university major is computer science and has nothing to do with photography. But he was interested in astronomy since he was a child. In 2013, an accidental trip to Lugu Lake aroused his childhood hobby, so he resolutely resigned as an independent photographer, "fulfilling his dream of chasing the stars!"
Photographer Wu Zhong
Wu Zhong's photography works have been selected as the daily astronomical pictures of NASA in the United States three times. In addition, he won the first prize in the Hoshino group of the "China Optical Expo (CIOE) National Astrophotography Competition" in 2016; in 2016 and 2017, he won the gold medal in the "International Earth and Starry Sky" photography competition held by TWAN for two consecutive years; in 2017, he won the runner-up of the annual Astrophotography Competition hosted by the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, England; in 2018, he won the championship of the "Panorama See the Future" 720 Cloud Creation Competition.
From 2017 to 2020, Wu Zhong published three books, "Starry Photography Notes", "Secret Realm of Starry Photography" and "Late-stage Practical Battle of Starry Photography", which influenced a large number of astrophotography enthusiasts. He also held a starry sky photography training, and many photographers benefited from it, and Dong Shuchang was one of them.
In order to take panoramic photos of the circular Milky Way, Wu Zhong rushed to the northern and southern hemispheres from 2018 to 2020: Wanaka Flatiron, New Zealand in the summer of the southern hemisphere, in the southern hemisphere Pukaki Lake in the winter, Qinghai water Yadan in the northern hemisphere ( Usutyadan Geopark ), and Zheduoshan in Ganzi, Sichuan in the winter of the northern hemisphere. It took two years to take a total of 1,600 photos of the Galaxy, and they were superimposed together, and finally got this photo.
This time, Wu Zhong was very happy to win the galaxy championship of the 2021 Astrophotography Contest. But he said, "The best work is always the next one, and I will continue to work hard."
The handsome guy who won the championship
is also a parkour expert
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 At that time, he was playing parkour and wanted to use his camera to shoot parkour videos. Unexpectedly, once he got the "pit" of photography, he could never get out again.
Dong Shuchang's parkour photo under the starry sky
That year, he got a "Starry Sky Photography Notes" written by Wu Zhong, and since then he became obsessed with shooting the starry sky. He felt unsatisfied with reading only books. He participated in Wu Zhong's starry sky photography training classes twice and went to Tibet for on-site shooting. Dong Shuchang admitted: "A large part of the reason I took pictures of the starry sky is because of Awu (Wu Zhong). "
Photographer Dong Shuchang
Wu Zhong also had a high opinion of this disciple: "Shuchang is a young man who has a lot of ideas and is willing to work hard for it. At such a young age, he can achieve the achievements that many photographers have dreamed of. It is amazing and has a promising future. "
Dong Shuchang's winning photo this time was taken from an annular solar eclipse on June 21, 2020. In order to take this photo, he specifically went to Ali area in Tibet.
According to the solar eclipse forecast, he selected the shooting location in advance. Astrophotography is often affected by the weather. Two or three months before the arrival of solar eclipse , he made a special plan to describe how to shoot on sunny days, cloudy photos, and how to shoot when there is no solar eclipse.
But in actual shooting, he still encountered many accidents.
The weather was not particularly good that day, and the clouds were thicker. Although the entire process of the solar eclipse lasted for several hours, the annular eclipse may only be only a few minutes. In order to find a cloud hole, he and his friends set out early in the morning, looking at the satellite cloud map to find it, predicting whether there will be a shooting opportunity in two hours, so he went around many places.
Time passed by minute by minute, and the right place was not found. Dong Shuchang finally became "Buddhist", so he simply stopped and decided to take a photo on the spot, "The weather is not good, and it doesn't matter if it can't be taken. Anyway, he has tried his best. "
Unexpectedly, just a few minutes before the eclipse came out, a cloud cave appeared there. Dong Shuchang seized the opportunity and took about 10 photos.
Dong Shuchang was very calm when shooting the starry sky
, because he knew how to shoot. "This picture has long appeared in my mind, so I was very relaxed when shooting and captured this picture calmly. "
The judges commented on this photo and said: "Using sensual, calm and professional techniques, this natural phenomenon is perfectly captured. It seems that as soon as you raise your finger, you can reach into the sky and put on this ring. "
In fact, Dong Shuchang has participated in the annual astronomer competition three times. In 2019, he won the Best Newcomer Championship.
This year, he expected to be shortlisted, but he did not expect to win the title of championship, sun group championship and astronomer of the year.
This is the second annual astronomer competition championship won by a Chinese photographer. In 2016, Chinese star photographer @steed won the championship of the competition for the first time.
High school student
who is obsessed with astronomy
and compared with Wu Zhong and Dong Shuchang, Wang Zhipu, who is in his second year in high school this year, is even more fledgling. He is from Yongtai, Fujian. He likes planetary photography and mainly shoots celestial bodies in the solar system.
Speaking of winning the youth championship of the 2021 Astronomical Photographer Competition, Wang Zhipu is very modest: "This project is for younger photographers to participate. "
When he was very young, Wang Zhipu began to like astronomy. In the second year of junior high school, he became more interested in astronomy. "I feel uncomfortable if I don't buy an astronomical telescope . "My parents bought him a StarTron 80DX astronomical telescope, "from then on, it's out of control."
Because of his good academic performance, his parents are very supportive of his interest. He often communicates with astronomy enthusiasts around him, "Only by communicating can we make progress and learn from the bosses. "
Wang Zhipu said that as long as you are willing to invest time and energy, astronomical photography is not difficult. However, it is not easy to shoot in actual shooting. It requires taking many frames of images, and post-substituting processing. Sometimes a photo needs to be processed for a long time.
Wang Zhipu, who is still in his second year in high school,
Wang Zhipu has long wanted to take a family photo of the solar system. In the summer vacation of 2019, he first started taking pictures of Saturn and Jupiter , in October of that year, he took photos of the sun, Uranus and Neptune . In early 2020, he photographed satisfactory Mercury.
Because he was still studying, in order to get an ideal shooting opportunity, sometimes he got up early before going to school, took photos at dawn, sometimes he took leave at night to study, went home to go to bed early, and got up again at night to shoot.
He tried to take photos three times, the last time The effect is relatively good. More than 10,000 frames were taken, and thousands of frames were selected for superposition and subsequent processing.
Wang Zhipu's Jupiter
After the major planets were taken separately, Wang Zhipu put them between the sun and the moon, and finally became family photos of the solar system.
Last year, he saw the works of the youth group of the Greenwich Annual Astrophotography Competition, and felt that his level could be achieved. Family photos of the solar system were completed Afterwards, he submitted the manuscript a few days before his 16th birthday with a try. Although
is confident in his level, it is still unexpected to win the Youth Group Championship. After receiving the notification email, Wang Zhipu read it repeatedly several times and told his mother the good news.
was able to win the award with Wu Zhong and Dong Shuchang, and Wang Zhipu was very happy. "I followed them on Weibo a long time ago, and they are all super awesome bosses. I didn’t expect to win the award with them. When I first notified me of being shortlisted, I was very happy. Later, I was notified to enter the top three and then the champion again, which I couldn't believe at all. "
Saturn taken by Wang Zhipu
More and more people are looking up at the starry sky
Chinese starry sky photographers explosively grow
starry sky can always arouse infinite imagination of mankind. Chinese photographers have achieved great achievements in starry sky photography, indicating that Chinese people have more energy to pursue "poetry and distance".
The Chinese chanted "The clouds and the Han are the chapters in the sky" as early as in " Book of Songs ". The Tang Dynasty Du Fu wrote "The stars hang flat and the wilderness, the moon surging the river."
There is a sentence engraved on the tombstone of the German philosopher Kant : "There are two things in the world that can deeply shake my heart, one is the lofty moral code in the heart, and the other is the brilliant starry sky above my head. "After the emergence of
photography technology, it was quickly used to shoot starry sky.
Star Alliance CSVA has brought together domestic starry sky photographers. Its co-initiator Jiang Chenming believes that starry sky photography has two major characteristics: "beauty" and "charm". Taking stars generally requires leaving the city and going deep into nature to take pictures. Starry sky photos shoot all the Galaxy starlight that people cannot see normally, and the scene is very beautiful.
The starry sky photos taken by Dong Shuchang
The starry sky photography also has a unique charm. The stars and constellations contain a lot of knowledge about astronomy, history, etc., covering thinking about human beings, the earth, the universe, nature, etc., and there are rich cultural genes behind it. Starry sky photography is a bottomless pit, and it can never be taken, and the more you take it, the more interesting it becomes. "I think this is also its charm. We often say that starry sky photography is a "pit" that cannot be easily entered. Once this field enters the "pit" it is difficult to extricate itself. "Jiang Chenming said.
China's starry sky photography started later than Western countries. However, with the strengthening of national strength, Chinese photographers have more and more opportunities to excel in international starry sky photography activities, especially after entering the 21st century, China's starry sky photography has shown a jumping development, reflecting the changes of the times and the advancement of technology.
Jiang Chenming said that in recent years, people who are interested in the starry sky have increased geometrically, and starry sky photographers in China have also seen explosive growth, because many places have vigorously promoted starry sky tourism in recent years. Recently, Jiang Chenming has been working non-stop, and has been giving lectures and photographing on starry sky tourism in Shaanxi, Ningxia, Sichuan, Xinjiang and other places. "Everywhere is doing starry sky travel-related projects, and it is very popular."
More and more people are walking out of the city and looking up at the starry sky, expanding the mass base of starry sky photography. Technology progress has lowered the threshold for shooting stars. Camera is innovating every year, and mobile phones have become more and more capable of shooting stars in dark nights. When major mobile phone manufacturers compete for shooting capabilities, starry sky photography is a key point of PK.
As a result of these factors, there are more and more professional and non-professional star photographers. Currently, Star Alliance CSVA has about 600 starry sky photographers, and they receive a steady stream of application emails every day.
The starry sky photos taken by Dong Shuchang
As more people take stars, they always use their works to prove their abilities. The Greenwich Astrophotography Competition is an important international astrophotography competition. In recent years, Chinese photographers have won many more and more Chinese photographers selected for the "Daily Day Text and Picture" (APOD) of the United States.
PhD in astrophysics, famous astronomical science author and starry sky and rocket photographer Liu Boyang said that the group of astrophotography has been growing and has formed a mature business model, and more and more people rely on astrophotography to support themselves. And they are very active in seeking breakthroughs in their creation and consciously expanding their participation in domestic and international competitions. Therefore, it is no surprise that this year's Greenwich Annual Astrophotography Competition has three winners at the same time, including the global champion.
Image source: The respondent provided
(original title: Three Chinese guys won 4 championships in the world's most powerful astronomical photography competition, the youngest was a high school student)
Source: Yangzi Evening News ｜ Author Song Shifeng
Process Editor: tf025
