Every experience of chasing stars is an exploration of the unknown.
Outlook Oriental Weekly reporter Shi Jiaqing editor Chen Rongxue.
On the evening of April 24, 2023, an extremely rare aurora eruption was photographed in Karamay, Xinjiang (photo by Dai Jianfeng).
On December 21, 2023, the original exhibition "Dunhuang Starry Sky" hosted by the Shanghai Planetarium (Shanghai Science and Technology Museum Branch) and the Dunhuang Academy was officially opened in the B1 temporary exhibition hall of the planetarium. "Dunhuang Starry Sky" is a special exhibition that interprets Dunhuang from an astronomical perspective, which is divided into three parts: "Stars on the Wall", "Hidden Stars in the Cave" and "Continuing to Tell the Stars".
Mogao Grottoes, Yangguan, Yumen Pass, Suoyang City ......The natural features, cultural landscapes and the bright starry sky complement each other. Among the many exhibits, a striking photo of a Dunhuang mural with the starry sky is the work of starry sky photographer Dai Jianfeng.
On September 22, 2023, the mural 231 of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang with the starry sky (photo by Dai Jianfeng).
Star photographer, a niche and unpopular profession, the total number of professional star photographers in the world does not exceed 30, and Dai Jianfeng is one of them. As an internationally renowned star photographer and China coordinator of Astronomers Without Borders (AWB), Dai Jianfeng not only successfully caught the rare aurora in China and captured the starry sky in more regions, but also shared this brilliant starry sky with everyone through live broadcast.
Every star-chasing experience is an exploration of the unknown. On August 8, 2023, Jupiter in the solar system will be conjunct a waning last quarter of the moon, which will be a wonderful celestial phenomenon of Jupiter's conjunction with the moon. The position of Jupiter observed this time is the same as the position of Jupiter that I saw for the first time 12 years ago. Jupiter orbits the Sun for 12 years, which coincides with the 12 Earth's branches. Dai Jianfeng told "Outlook Oriental Weekly".
Meet the stars.
In 1988, Dai Jianfeng was born in the mountain city of Chongqing. Chongqing is brightly lit at night, but it is rare to see the stars. Before becoming a photographer, Dai was an automotive engineer. At that time, he was a typical science and engineering nerd, majoring in mechanical design in college, and after graduation, he joined an automobile company in Chongqing, living a two-point-one-line, 9-to-5 life. When he wasn't at work, he hid in his room and played games until midnight.
In May 2011, Dai Jianfeng and two colleagues traveled to Fanjing Mountain in Guizhou Province and stayed at the foot of the mountain. That night, Dai Jianfeng walked alone, looking up at the night sky in an open area with no lights, and he was deeply shocked by the starry sky.
When the starlight went straight to my heart, I was immediately attracted to it, and it was then that I realized that there was such a beautiful thing in the world. Dai Jianfeng recalled. Since then, Dai Jianfeng has developed a keen interest in the starry sky. Back in Chongqing, he began to teach himself astronomy and bought a camera to learn photography techniques.
In August 2011, Dai Jianfeng participated in an outdoor observation activity organized by Chongqing astronomy enthusiasts, and he observed the lunar craters, Jupiter's Great Red Spot and Saturn's rings for the first time through an astronomical telescope, which was also the first time he photographed the Milky Way**. At that time, it was the Perseid meteor shower, and he and the others were lying on the moisture mat to count the meteors, and saw dozens of meteors in one night.
Since then, almost every holiday as long as the weather is good, Dai Jianfeng will bring a camera to shoot the starry sky. He quickly found like-minded partners and continued to publish his own photographs. Three or four months after photographing the stars, his ** was adopted by domestic astronomical magazines; Five or six months later, his work was accepted by the American journal Astronomy; A year later, his ** was adopted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
In 2014, he photographed the celestial phenomenon of "swirling air ripples" in Gamba County, and NASA also captured this scene in space. As a result, it appeared on the cover of the December 2015 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and was later published in Nature (Nature, a well-known academic journal).
In the past few years, Dai Jianfeng has photographed the starry sky of the southern hemisphere in Namibia, Africa, fell into a glacier in Nepal, and was chased by nine dogs in **Sheep Lake......His star-chasing footsteps span the northern and southern hemispheres.
Dai Jianfeng's work photo.
Chasing the Northern Lights in China.
On April 24, 2023, when Dai Jianfeng was photographing the starry sky in Karamay, Xinjiang, he saw a message from the National Space Weather Monitoring and Warning Center that there was a very geomagnetic storm on the earth, which was expected to last about two days, so he immediately packed his luggage and set off north.
By the time he reached the northern part of the town of Wuerhe, it was already 3 a.m. Twenty minutes later, Dai Jianfeng saw a red light suddenly appear in the viewfinder and quickly fill the entire frame.
The aurora was triggered by a G4 megamagnetic storm caused by a coronal mass ejection. At that time, the aurora appeared in the northern sky, reaching a brightness visible to the naked eye. What's even more rare is that, in addition to red and purple, this is the first time that China has captured a rare stable auroral red arc. Dai Jianfeng said.
In this mega magnetic storm shooting, Dai Jianfeng used multiple cameras to completely record the whole process of the aurora. At the same time, the "Fengyun-3" satellite happened to fly over Xinjiang, and this combination of ground and space photography has very high scientific research value.
This successful aurora shooting allowed Dai Jianfeng to open a new shooting theme - chasing the aurora in China.
In order to chase the aurora, Dai Jianfeng went to the northernmost part of China to wait at the Mohe River.
On May 8, I waited at minus 10 degrees Celsius in the first bay of Longjiang (located on the Heilongjiang River northeast of Mohe County), and waited until 11:20 p.m. to suddenly appear in the northeast of the aurora red pillar, which was really incredible. Dai Jianfeng said.
Dai Jianfeng believes that he can photograph the aurora not only because of his rich shooting experience, but more importantly, because the China Polar Research Center has provided him with scientific data.
When the aurora appeared in Mohe, the experts carried out real-time monitoring in the rear and observed the changes in the magnetic field data simultaneously, which gave Dai Jianfeng a scientific basis to prove his shooting results. Dai Jianfeng believes that in the middle and high latitudes such as Heilongjiang and Xinjiang, it is entirely possible to photograph the aurora during periods of intense solar activity.
In the early morning of July 14, Dai Jianfeng photographed the aurora again in Hami, Xinjiang, as he wished, which is the third time he has photographed the aurora in China in 2023. "The purple-red aurora appears in the north, connected to the lake, and there are lightning, meteors and artificial satellites passing by in the sky from time to time, which is really fantastic. Dai Jianfeng said.
The live broadcast has more than 15 million views.
In 2020, Dai Jianfeng started astronomical live broadcast.
Coincidentally, the first live broadcast was in Guizhou, where his starry sky journey began. The live broadcast lasted five hours and received more than 15 million views across the network. Since then, Dai Jianfeng has shared the starry sky he has seen with more people, and watched meteor showers, comets, solar and moon eclipses and other magnificent celestial phenomena with them.
Geminid meteor showers usually appear in mid-December each year, but the cold spell and rain and snow in most parts of the country in 2023 have left many stargazers frustrated. Due to the sunny weather in Lijiang, from December 13th to 15th, star-chasers and astronomical researchers from all over the world gathered in Lijiang. From Gaomei Gu to Lugu Lake, and then to the foot of Yulong Snow Mountain, they can be seen, and Dai Jianfeng is one of them.
At around 10 p.m. on December 14, 2023, the sky over Komigu was covered with thick clouds. A night wind blew away, blowing away the clouds and revealing the starry sky. On moonless nights, the Winter Milky Way can also be seen with the naked eye, with countless stars hanging in the deep blue sky, with Jupiter, Sirius, Orion, and the Big Dipper shining brightly.
It's worth it this time! Saw a green fire meteor piercing through the clouds! Dai Jianfeng placed 45 kilograms of filming equipment at the Gaomei Gulijiang Astronomical Observatory, and broadcast live from the 14th to the early morning of the 15th.
On September 29, 2023, when Dai Jianfeng released the ** of "A Round of Bright Moon Out of the Tianshan Mountain", a tidal wave of exclamations immediately appeared on the Internet: "It's so beautiful, this round of bright moon is simply beautiful and makes us cry ......."”
Dai Jianfeng sighed on Weibo: "I really don't know what to say!" There is great beauty in heaven and earth! He said it was the most shocking full moon he had ever photographed.
On September 28, 2023, the full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival rises over the Bogda Peak of the Tianshan Mountains, reproducing the poetic picture of "the bright moon rising from the Tianshan Mountains" (Photo by Dai Jianfeng).
Talking about this experience, Dai Jianfeng said: "The filming process is not easy, it has to be accurately calculated, and we have to wait for the opportunity, and no one is fully sure that they will be able to shoot the expected picture." The camera, the Bogda and the rising moon should be in the same straight line, the time should be exactly at sunset, and when the moon rises, the light should be able to see the Bogda peak, which can only be photographed by various chances and conditions. ”
There was also a bonus to this shoot. "When the moon was about to rise at the summit of Bogda Peak, I accidentally photographed migratory birds flying over the surface of the moon. They are like us homesick wanderers, wearing the stars and the moon, running to the warmest home in our hearts! At that moment, I seemed to experience the mood of Li Bai when he wrote 'The bright moon rises from the Tianshan Mountains, among the vast sea of clouds' thousands of years ago. Dai Jianfeng said.
In Dai Jianfeng's live broadcast room, netizens like to watch the phenomena related to meteor showers and the moon the most. Super Moon, Mid-Autumn Festival Full Moon, Partial Lunar Eclipse, Total Lunar Eclipse and several major constellation meteor showers, many netizens stay up late with him every time they live broadcast. Some netizens said: "There are always people who stay up late in the dark to bring everyone a surprise in the universe, this is the meaning of the existence of star chasers." ”
In recent years, astronomy attention has been on the rise. The live broadcast of celestial phenomena has made more people understand astronomy, and more and more people have paid attention to me. They love my starry sky work, and some enthusiasts have started to try their hand at shooting starry skies**. Dai Jianfeng said.
Guardian of the Night".
In 2015, Dai Jianfeng became a "Guardian of the Night".
In 2023, China's first international dark sky community, Shenzhen Xichong Dark Night Community, received international certification, and Dai Jianfeng is also a participant in the project.
Dai Jianfeng said that all kinds of landscape lights, neon lights, street lights and other lights in the city will obscure the sky, and this kind of light pollution is spreading rapidly. According to the International Dark Sky Association, the world's annual waste of energy due to the irrational use of lighting is equivalent to the energy produced by 2.6 million tons of coal and 13.6 million barrels of oil.
Ruskin Hartley, executive president of the International Dark Sky Society, said that for millions of years, humans and other creatures have evolved in a rhythm of bright days and dark nights, however, over the past century, artificial light has broken this natural cycle. Today, global light pollution is growing at an alarming rate, with 83% of people living under the sky of light pollution. The vanishing dark night not only affects the observation of the starry sky, but also harms human health, destroys ecosystems, and wastes energy. Humanity should find solutions to reduce light pollution and strike a balance between development and the preservation of natural rhythms.
From the brilliant aurora in Karamay, Xinjiang, to the International Dark Sky Reserve in Namibia, Dai Jianfeng has been committed to dark night conservation.
The Milky Way over the Red Desert in Namibia on June 15, 2023 (photo by Dai Jianfeng).
In June 2023, Dai Jianfeng traveled to Namibia to photograph the starry sky in the southern hemisphere using VR panoramic technology, and the new technology makes people feel the immersive beauty: by the stream, the low roar of the rhinoceros seems to ring in the ears; Under the crescent moon, two giraffes snuggle together warmly; Under the starlight, the antelope bows its head and grazes, and the picture is very warm and ......
Dai Jianfeng said that dark night protection is not to prohibit lights, but to use lights scientifically and reasonably, and pay attention to the right time and place. Protecting the starry sky can carry out more astronomical science popularization and starry sky tourism activities.
Protecting the dark night and the starry sky is to protect the homeland, the ecological environment, and you and me, which requires the joint efforts of the whole society. Dai Jianfeng said.