Flaming night sky

Many of us may have seen lighting, but how about sprite lightning? It’s a colorful group of lightning flashes high above thunderstorm clouds. Some of them don’t even shine for one microsecond, but young Chinese star photographers Dong Shuchang and An Jiu used their lenses to shoot a rare “red-sprite” lightning burst in the Himalayas in Tibet autonomous region on the evening of May 19.
我们很多人可能都见过闪电，但你见过精灵闪电吗？这种闪电色彩鲜艳，形成于雷暴云层之上，有些发光甚至不超过一微秒。但5月19日晚，两位年轻的中国天文摄影师董书畅和安久用他们的镜头，在西藏自治区的喜马拉雅山脉拍到了罕见的“红色精灵”闪电群。

“This is the best photo ever taken in China, and it is the first time that this kind of sprite lightning we have shot has been seen around the world,” meteorological expert Ji Yun told Xinhua.
气象专家计云在接受新华社采访时表示:“这次拍摄已经算是目前中国人中拍摄得最好的了，首次把我们拍摄的这类精灵闪电的效果提升到了世界水准。”

For 24-year-old Dong, from Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region, it’s the result both of good luck and good preparation. Passing through the mountains, Dong and his companion An originally planned to shoot stars and the Milky Way. With the cold wind howling, they were too tired to talk and could only face their own camera monitors, waiting in silence for almost three hours.
董书畅今年24岁，来自中国西北部的宁夏回族自治区。对董书畅来说，拍摄到“红色精灵”闪电群既是因为运气好，也是由于准备充分。董书畅和同伴安久在群山中穿行，原本计划拍摄星空和银河。山间寒风呼啸，两人累得说不出话，只能面对着自己的摄像监视器，默默等了将近三个小时。

“An Jiu! Look this way!” When Dong was looking at the sky, countless red lights suddenly poured down from above and dyed the entire starry sky red. The sprite lightning appeared very frequently, around every one or two minutes. “Our four or five cameras took about 200 photos of the red sprites. There are even four or five consecutive cases of them appearing in one photo at the same time!” Dong shouted excitedly.
“安久！看这边！”董书畅凝视着夜空时，数不清的红光忽然从上方倾泻而下，将整片星空染成了红色。这次“红色精灵”闪电出现得十分密集，基本每隔一两分钟就会出现一次。董书畅激动地喊道：“我们架了四、五台相机，拍摄到大约200张“红色精灵”闪电的照片，甚至有的连续四五个同时出现在一张照片里！”

Later, they encountered a group of wolves. Instead of running, they calmly packed up their equipment and turned on their headlights to illuminate the animals. Then they slowly stepped away to escape the danger.
后来，董书畅和安久遇到了狼群。他们没有跑，而是镇定地整理器材，并打开头灯用强光照射狼群。然后两人慢慢撤离，成功摆脱危险。

Using the lens to capture the beautiful stars has brought excitement and purpose to Dong’s life, although the process has been mixed with sweat and tears. In 2006, 8-year-old Dong received an astronomical telescope and started practicing using a telephoto lens to photograph the Milky Way to hone his skills. On June 21, 2020, Dong captured a solar eclipse in a photo titled The Golden Ring, winning the 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition hosted by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
尽管“猎星”之路交杂着汗与泪，用镜头捕捉美丽的星星还是让董书畅感到兴奋，这也为他的生活带来了目标。2006年，8岁的董书畅收到一台天文望远镜，他开始练习使用长焦镜头拍摄银河系，磨练自己的天文摄影技艺。2020年6月21日，董书畅拍摄到一次日食，并凭借这幅名为《金环》的照片赢得了由格林威治皇家天文台主办的2021年年度天文学摄影师大赛。

Then in late September, 2021, Dong went on a photography trip to Mount Qomolangma. He focused on finding places off the beaten track and differences in the region over the past 100 years.
随后在2021年9月下旬，董书畅开启了珠穆朗玛峰摄影之旅，他专心寻找鲜有人涉足的路线，记录百年沧桑带给这里的变化。

“Astrophotography enables me to record details that are usually missed by the naked eye,” Dong said. Speaking about future plans, Dong said he would explore new fields and find better ways to integrate science and art.
董书畅说，“天文摄影让我能记录下被肉眼忽略的细节。”谈到未来打算时，董书畅说自己还将探索新的摄影领域，尝试用更好的方式将科学与艺术融汇在一起。

以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报高中版》，详情请见《21世纪学生英文报高中版》高二875期