A few months ago, we saw a 16-year old boy from Pune, Prathamesh Jaju, capture one among the foremost breathtaking images of the Moon His skill and creativity broke the web and was adored by the entire world, and now, he’s captured two of the foremost beautiful and iconic celestial objects from our system — Saturn and Jupiter We need to have an exclusive interaction with Prathamesh to know how he managed to capture these rather breathtaking images and what’s his process like while capturing such breathtaking shots.
Fascinated by the universe from an early age
Prathamesh humbly calls himself an amateur astrophotographer and astronomer. He shared what really ignited the spark for astrophotography within him, “I was fascinated by the wonders of our universe ever since i used to be 8. I wont to watch sci-fi movies and television shows associated with space and science like StarTrek, Star Wars and lots of others all the time!”
Taking this curiosity to subsequent level, Jaju joined an astronomy club when he was young, “To learn more about astronomy and astrophotography, I joined an astronomy club called Jyotirvidya Parisanstha which is India’s oldest amateur astronomer association, after being a member for a short time I volunteered for an equivalent .”
Getting introduced to astrophotography
Looking at astrophotographers online, he saw that they were ready to capture the universe with a basic setup that was lying in his wardrobe reception , “ I saw that a lot of great astrophotographers captured these beautiful images with a basic setup including alittle telescope, a DSLR camera and a couple of other things which was available to me at my Astronomy club and my home, so I started capturing images of astronomical objects and that i haven’t looked back.”
Upgrading the gear along the way
Seeing the pictures he’s captured over the years, we were curious to find out what quite gear he utilized in the initial days of his journey. Prathamesh shared, “For planetary images, I usually used a Celestron 5 Cassegrain Telescope with a Skywatcher EQ3-2 mount which I borrowed from JVP (Jyotirvidya Parisanstha). For cameras, i exploit a ZWO ASI120MCS or ZWO ASI462MCS.”
A year later, after seeing his enthusiasm and talent for astrophotography, his uncle got him a Skywatcher 150P telescope that he pairs together with his Canon 1300D. However, this is often no ordinary 1300D.
Jaju explained, “My Friend Aditya Kinjawadekar and that i did a full spectrum modification on a Canon EOS1300D DSLR camera. We disassembled the DSLR and removed the IR Block filter and therefore the LPF2 filter which makes the camera sensitive to all or any wavelengths and makes it a full spectrum DSLR camera.”
Capturing Jupiter and Saturn
Prathamesh shared his fascination towards Jupiter and Saturn and why he picked these because the subject for this project, “Jupiter & Saturn are two of the brightest planets and that they have some beautiful features like for Jupiter we will see it’s biggest Moons like Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto and also its weather bands, except for Saturn, being the foremost beautiful planet due to its rings, i could not consider shooting anything .”
He added, “During these shots, I, along side my friends, (Atharva Pathak, Siddharth Birmal and Shubham Kulkarni) visited Jyotirvidya Parisanstha’s Observatory. it had been cloudy with poor visibility from 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM. After 2:00 AM it began to clear up and that we could see the planets Jupiter and Saturn and a couple of other stars. We quickly assembled and aligned the telescope to Saturn and that we started shooting.”
Describing his experience seeing the planets up close while capturing them, Jaju said, “It was the primary time I observed the planets through my new mount and JVP’s biggest telescope — the Celestron C11 EdgeHD The view of the planets through this setup cannot be expressed in words. an enormous a part of the screen was covered with Saturn and its rings. It’s an experience i can not put into words,” he added.
Witnessing the gargantuan Jupiter altogether its glory, Jaju added, “Likewise, Jupiter being the most important planet within the system was even as beautiful as Saturn. We quickly captured around 7,000 to 10,000 images of every planet, because just after our shoot it became cloudy again.”
The images were later processed in software like PIPP, AUTOSTAKKERT, Registax, IMPPG, Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Snapseed I was also curious to find out what quite preparation goes into getting the right shot, to which Prathamesh added, “Not much planning, it’s more spontaneous. But a touch check of the weather outlook helps me a lot!”
Just transitioned to Grade 11
Academically, Prathamesh revealed that he’s just moved to the 11th grade and has picked Science as his field of choice, “I wish to pursue my career in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Astrophotography is more of my passion and hobby.”
However, just in case you were wondering if he’s just into astrophotography, you’d be surprised to understand that he’s also an athlete, “Besides astronomy and astrophotography, I even have been playing Athletics – Long Jump since 2012 from Deccan Gymkhana. I even have participated within the National Level Competitions in Long Jump in 2019. My hobbies besides astrophotography are reading, trekking, taking note of rock ‘n’ roll , sipping coffee everywhere i’m going and watching intriguing TV shows and films the maximum amount as I can.”
Advice to budding astrophotographers
We asked him what he would advise people that are inspired by seeing his creativity. Prathamesh shared, “Astrophotography is extremely easy if you’ve got tons of patience. Whatever equipment you’ve got immediately is that the best equipment. an easy DSLR camera and a tripod is perhaps the simplest thanks to start with Astrophotography. Just search tutorials on YouTube ‘Astrophotography for Beginners’ and obtain started with it. Trust me, you are going to possess tons of fun as you retain shooting images of those celestial bodies!”
Upcoming dream project
Prathamesh shared that for his next dream project, he wishes to capture the skies in Leh Ladakh, “ I’m currently getting to visit Leh Ladakh exclusively for Astrophotography with my complete Setup. there is no light pollution within the Himalayan mountain ranges and that i hope I could capture some beautiful images of various nebulae and galaxies!”
