Prathamesh Jaju is an Indian teenage boy who calls himself an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer. He became famous after a picture of the moon shot by him went viral on the internet. The picture was created out of more than 50,000 images and was over 186 gigabytes in data.
Wiki/Biography
Prathamesh Jaju was born in 2005 (age 16 years; as of 2021) in Pune, Maharashtra. Prathamesh completed his Class X from Vidya Bhavan High School, Pune, amid the lockdown imposed in Maharashtra due to the rising cases of Covid-19. Prathamesh is fond of astrophotography and owns several high-end telescopes and cameras to pursue his hobby.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 8″
Eye Colour: Black
Hair Colour: Black
Facts/Trivia
- Prathamesh Jaju began exploring the field of astrophotography in 2018 as a hobby, and he couldn’t believe that his photo had gone viral. In an interview, he said-
I did not expect my image of the moon to go this viral, but yes, it is my best shot so far.”
The Moon captured by Prathamesh Jaju
- Prathamesh Jaju had a passion for space ever since he was a kid, and he was a huge fan of the science fiction movies/TV franchises Star Trek and Star Wars.
- Prathamesh was 13 years old when he joined Jyotirvidya Parisanstha (JVP), India’s oldest amateur astronomy club. JVP is an NGO that provides courses in astronomy and astrophotography. They also conduct star-gazing sessions to help their students understand the sky better.
Prathamesh Jaju trying to capture the night sky with his equipments
- Before his moon photo went viral, Jaju’s pictures of planets like Mars and Jupiter were reposted by several other astrophotography-related accounts.
Photo of the planet Jupiter captured by Prathamesh Jaju
- Prathamesh took four hours to click the image of the Moon, and he spent three days finishing the process and editing. Jaju uploaded the picture with the caption-
This image is an HDR Composite of two different images made to give it a 3 dimensional effect. This is my most detailed and clearest shot of the third quarter Mineral Moon… I captured around 50,000+ images over 186 GigaBytes of Data which almost killed my laptop with the processing.”
- He explained the process with which he clicked the photographs in an interview with ANI. During the interview, he said-
I first captured them (images) by capturing multiple videos on different small areas of the Moon. Each video contains around 2000 frames; first, we stabilise them, then we merge and stack each video into one image. So I took around 38 videos. Now we have 38 images.”
- During the interview, Prathamesh further added that he wished to become an astrophysicist and study astronomy as his major, and astrophotography was just a hobby for him.