‘Showing the beauty’: Chinese teens inspire with stunning galaxy photo, snapping up top youth prize at famed astrophotography contest in UK
- The 14-year-old winners Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen won the prize by impressing judges with a collaborative photo of the Andromeda Galaxy
- The pair became friends online, bonding over a love of astronomy and worked together to create the winning photo without meeting in person
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Two Chinese teenagers who won the 2022 Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London have become trending stars on mainland social media.
The 14-year-old winners Yang Hanwen from southeastern China, and Zhou Zezhen from eastern China, won the prize with their collaborative image Andromeda Galaxy: The Neighbor, CCTV News reported.
The two teens who met online and bonded over a shared love of astronomy created their winning image by working together over the internet and had not met in person before winning the award.
Yang has been a keen amateur astronomer since he was 12 years old after seeing a movie and convinced his parents to buy him a space telescope last year.
With the help of staff at an astronomy research facility in Yunnan, southwestern China, his telescope was set up to enable Yang to observe and take real-time images of deep space galaxies remotely from his laptop.
Yang targeted the Andromeda Galaxy because it is one of the closest and largest neighbours of the Milky Way.
“When you look at it with the naked eye it’s like fog, but through the telescope, it shows its magnificence,” Yang said.
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Yang captured hundreds of images of the Andromeda Galaxy with five minutes of exposure for each.
In the end, it took a total exposure of 17 hours to capture the best images and it was at this point that Yang passed the project to Zhou for help with computer processing.
“The composite image by the telescope is dark, our eyes can’t see it. My responsibility was to make it visible,” Zhou said.
When the pair submitted the finished photo for the competition they didn’t think too much about it, assuming they would not win given the competitive nature of the competition.
After the results came out they were surprised they had won in the youth category, with judges complimenting the photograph as a very natural-looking rendering of the Andromeda Galaxy.
“I feel honoured and thank the judges for their work. One of the main functions of astrophotography is to attract more people to fall in love with astronomy by showing the beauty of the Universe,” Zhou said in an online acceptance speech at the awards.
Yang added: “It also tells us the meaning of astronomy, making it easier for people to appreciate space. I think I will continue to do this exciting work.”
The teenagers have become a viral hit on mainland social media with many praising their hard work and effort at such a young age.
One admirer commented online: “They proved that having a hobby is the best teacher.”
Another wrote: “Our neighbour galaxy is really gorgeous.”
The Royal Observatory Greenwich first hosted the annual competition in 2009 to feature the world’s greatest space photography. This year’s winning images will be on display at the National Maritime Museum in London till August 2023.
