Aiming for the skies
Well-known Chinese astrophotographer says creating a work that can move viewers is the ultimate goal of his art
By CHEN LIANG in Hami, Xinjiang | China Daily | Updated: 2026-02-21 08:49
New formats
To better share the wonders of the night sky, he constantly explores new multimedia formats.
Drawing on his background as an industrial designer, he designed his own panoramic tripod, allowing him to record the starry sky from 360 degrees without any blind spots using four cameras.
In June 2023, he traveled to Namibia to capture 360-degree panoramas of the southern hemisphere's sky, the first such attempt for a Chinese astrophotographer, equipped with his new setup. He carried eight cameras, three tripods and a dozen oneterabyte hard disks for the 15-day trip.
A single night of shooting could produce over 8,000 images, occupying 800 gigabytes of storage space. For one night's work, he needs a 1 TB hard drive.
"I needed to process over 10 terabytes of photos after returning from Africa," he said.
The effects of his time-lapse photography works are remarkable and "can be presented in dome theaters", he said.
