16-Year-Old Pune Teen Captured Jupiter & Saturn On His Camera: He Shares With Us How He Did It

A few months ago, we saw a 16-year old boy from Pune, Prathamesh Jaju, capture one of the most breathtaking images of the Moon.?

His skill and creativity broke the internet and was adored by the whole world, and now, he’s captured two of the most beautiful and iconic celestial objects from our solar system -- Saturn and Jupiter.

Prathamesh Jaju

Also Read:?Moon Pic Shot By 16-Year-Old Pune Boy Is Made Of 55,000 Images And 186 GB

We got to have an exclusive interaction with Prathamesh to understand 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 was 8. I used to watch sci-fi movies and tv shows related to space and science like StarTrek, Star Wars and many others all the time!”

Prathamesh Jaju

Taking this curiosity to the next 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 while I volunteered for the same.”

Getting introduced to astrophotography

Looking at astrophotographers online, he saw that they were able to capture the universe with a basic setup that was lying in his wardrobe at home, “ I saw that many great astrophotographers captured these beautiful images with a basic setup which included a small telescope, a DSLR camera and a few other things which was available to me at my Astronomy club and my home, so I started capturing images of astronomical objects and I haven't looked back.”

Also Read:?Pune Boy Clicks Epic Moon Picture From Home With A Camera, Telescope

Upgrading the gear along the way

Seeing the images he’s captured over the years, we were curious to learn what kind of gear he used 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 use 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 with his Canon 1300D. However, this is no ordinary 1300D.?

Prathamesh Jaju

Also Read:?Guy Clicks Space Station Pic In Front Of Moon, 400 Km Away From Earth

Jaju explained, “My Friend Aditya Kinjawadekar and I did a full spectrum modification on a Canon EOS1300D DSLR camera. We disassembled the DSLR and removed the IR Block filter and the LPF2 filter which makes the camera sensitive to all 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 as the subject for this project, “Jupiter & Saturn are two of the brightest planets and they have some beautiful features like for Jupiter we can see it's biggest Moons like Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto and also its weather bands, but for Saturn, being the most beautiful planet because of its rings, I couldn't think of shooting anything else.”

Prathamesh Jaju

He added, “During these shots, I, along with my friends, (Atharva Pathak, Siddharth Birmal and Shubham Kulkarni) visited Jyotirvidya Parisanstha's Observatory. It was cloudy with poor visibility from 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM. After 2:00 AM it started to clear up and we could see the planets Jupiter and Saturn and a few other stars. We quickly assembled and aligned the telescope to Saturn and we started shooting.”

Saturn and its moons: Prathamesh Jaju

Describing his experience seeing the planets up close while capturing them, Jaju said, “It was the first 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 can't be expressed in words. A huge part of the screen was covered with Saturn and its rings. It’s an experience I can't put into words,” he added.

Prathamesh Jaju

Witnessing the gargantuan Jupiter in all its glory, Jaju added, “Likewise, Jupiter being the largest planet in the solar system was just as beautiful as Saturn. We quickly captured around 7,000 to 10,000 images of each 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 learn what kind of preparation goes into getting the perfect shot, to which Prathamesh added, “Not much planning, it's more spontaneous. But a little check of the weather forecast helps me a lot!”

Also Read:?Indian Guy Captured Amazing Pic Of Moon With Entry-Level DSLR, He Explains How

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, in case you were wondering if he's just into astrophotography, you’d be surprised to know that he’s also an athlete, “Besides astronomy and astrophotography, I have been playing Athletics - Long Jump since 2012 from Deccan Gymkhana. I have participated in the National Level Competitions in Long Jump in 2019. My hobbies besides astrophotography are reading, trekking, listening to rock music, sipping coffee everywhere I go and watching intriguing TV shows and Movies as much as I can.”

Advice to budding astrophotographers

We asked him what he would advise people who are inspired by seeing his creativity. Prathamesh shared, “Astrophotography is very easy if you have a lot of patience. Whatever equipment you have right now is the best equipment. A simple DSLR camera and a tripod is probably the best way to start with Astrophotography. Just look up tutorials on YouTube ‘Astrophotography for Beginners’ and get started with it. Trust me, you're going to have a lot of fun as you keep shooting images of these celestial bodies!”

Prathamesh Jaju

Upcoming dream project

Prathamesh shared that for his next dream project, he wishes to capture the skies in Leh Ladakh, “ I'm currently planning to visit Leh Ladakh exclusively for Astrophotography with my complete Setup. There's no light pollution in the Himalayan mountain ranges and I hope I could capture some beautiful images of different nebulae and galaxies!”