When you look at all the sparkling stars in the night sky, do you want to know what the universe really looks like? Inspired by the simple beauty of space, many astronomy photographers indulge in shooting high-definition pictures of stars, galaxies and gas clouds. Wang Zhipu, a 16-year-old boy from No 1 Middle School of Yongtai, Fujian province, is one of them.
看到夜空中星光閃爍，你想不想知道宇宙究竟是什么樣的？受到太空簡單之美感染，許多天文攝影師沉迷于拍攝恒星、星系和氣體云的高清照片。來自福建省永泰一中的16歲男生王至璞，就是其中之一。

While standing on his balcony, Wang observes various planets thousands of light-years away with an astronomical telescope and takes pictures of them. He then creates a composite image of planets in the solar system, framed by the sun and moon. His picture, Family Photo of the Solar System, helped him take home the top prize in the Young Competition category at the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, the world’s biggest astrophotography competition organized by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
王至璞站在陽臺上，用天文望遠鏡觀察著數(shù)千光年之外的各大行星，并拍下它們的照片。隨后，他將行星拼在太陽和月球之間，創(chuàng)造出一幅太陽系行星的合成圖像。王至璞憑借照片《太陽系“全家?！薄?，獲得了格林威治年度天文攝影師大賽青年組冠軍。該競賽由格林威治皇家天文臺主辦，是世界上最大的天文攝影比賽。

“All families are unconventional, so I adored this fresh, gently playful concept around the solar system,” said the competition judge Sue Prichard while talking about Wang’s picture. “A meaningful, technically accomplished work from a rising star of astronomical photography.”
“‘全家?！锏乃刑祗w都拍出了新意，我很喜歡這種圍繞太陽系的新鮮、又有些有趣的概念，”競賽評委蘇·普里查德談及王至璞的照片時表示，“王至璞是一顆天文攝影的新星，他創(chuàng)造了一個有意義的、技術(shù)成熟的作品?！?/span>

Since Junior 2, Wang has always liked to take different pictures of the moon, Saturn and Jupiter, among others, to improve his shooting skills. “Then one day, an idea struck me: Why don’t I put those planets together and let them reunite?” said Wang. “That’s the beginning of my story.”
從初二開始，王至璞就一直喜歡拍攝月球、土星和木星等不同天體的照片，提高自己的拍攝技巧。“后來有一天，我忽然有了一個想法：為什么不把這些行星放在一起，讓它們連成一線呢？”王至璞說，“這就是《太陽系“全家?！薄返淖畛鮼碓?。”

It hasn’t been easy taking pictures of outer space. For about half a year, Wang had to calculate the best time to shoot planets when they’re opposite the sun in Earth’s sky to get the brightest images. What’s more, he still needed to wait for clear weather to see better. For example, Mercury is often cited as the most difficult of the five brightest planets to see with the naked eye. Because it’s the planet closest to the sun, it never goes too far from the sun’s vicinity in the sky. To capture a clear picture of it, Wang tried to shoot it three times in the early morning but failed. At sunset, he shot 10,000 frames of video and selected several thousand better frames to overlay, further refine them and form a more satisfactory picture.
外太空攝影并非易事。在大約半年的時間里，王至璞都必須精心計算拍攝行星的最佳時間，等行星經(jīng)過地球上空，行至與太陽相對的位置時，才能拍攝出最明亮的圖像。更重要的是，他還需要等待晴朗的天氣，以觀看到更清晰的效果。例如，人們經(jīng)常評價水星是五顆最亮的行星中，用肉眼最難觀看到的一顆。因為水星是離太陽最近的行星，它在太空中從不會遠離太陽四周。為了捕捉到清晰的水星畫面，王至璞在黎明時分拍攝過三次，但效果均不理想。日落時，王至璞拍到了10000幀的視頻，他選取比較好的幾千幀進行疊加，進一步優(yōu)化，制成了更令人滿意的圖片。

From shooting to processing photos, Wang learned photography all by himself. He reads astronomy books, joins astrophotography clubs, learns different photo processing software and exchanges ideas with his classmates. To get the ideal shot, Wang often gets up early before going to school and goes to bed early to save energy.
從拍攝到處理照片，王至璞自學了攝影。他閱讀天文學書籍，參加天文攝影俱樂部，學習使用不同的照片處理軟件，并與同學們交流想法。為了拍出理想的照片，王至璞經(jīng)常在上學之前早起拍攝，或回家提早睡覺，以便節(jié)省體力（夜里再起來拍攝）。

“It’s a pity that the light pollution makes it nearly impossible to see stars in the night sky,” said Wang. “I hope my pictures can call on more people to protect our environment and the infinite universe.”
“很遺憾因為光污染，我們幾乎不可能在夜空中看到星星，”王至璞說，“希望我的照片可以呼吁更多的人保護我們的環(huán)境和無限的宇宙?！?/span>

以上文章內(nèi)容選自《21世紀學生英文報高中版》，詳情請見《21世紀學生英文報高中版》高一844期