Farmer turns lens toward the cosmos

Cao Jun has set up a small observatory at his goat pen where he takes pictures of the universe every night after work.

The 30-year-old from Liuyang, Hunan province, became a fan of astronomy photography in January 2023, after a friend showed him some of the amazing photos of the night sky that can be taken in rural areas.

Cao said he was a photography enthusiast in college, but after he returned to his hometown to raise goat, he did not have much time to take pictures.

In rural areas, because they don't have much light pollution, it's ideal to observe the sky and take pictures of the beauty of the universe with the help of a telescope. He set up a 10-square-meter observatory at his goat pen in March last year.

Cao said astronomy photography is a niche hobby in China, so he had to learn mostly from foreign video tutorials.

After he bought the necessary equipment to set up the observatory, a big hurdle was for him to master the photo-processing software.

He used more software to translate the tutorials and spent almost eight months learning how to use it.

Cao has taken dozens of pictures of the universe and is very proud of several of them.

"Astronomy photography is very intelligent. As long as one sets up the equipment, it can take pictures automatically," he said.

"You cannot see some of the constellations with your eyes, but you can with a telescope. After you make efforts to take pictures of the galaxy, you will be amazed by the beauty of the universe," he added.

Just like astronomy photography, Cao started his full-time job, raising sheep, without any prior knowledge. He majored in Chinese literature at Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine. After he graduated from college in 2016, he returned to his hometown in Liuyang to raise goats.

In 2017, he went to a goat farm in Huaihua, Hunan, for more than a month to learn how to raise goats. He has also gone to goat farms in Henan and Shandong provinces to learn techniques and invited experts from Jiangsu province to his own farm for guidance.

However, raising goats is more difficult than he imagined and the risks are also bigger, he said. He lost more than 70,000 yuan ($9,500) during the worst times.

As he accumulates experience from failure, the business of raising goats gradually took off. In 2019, he made more than 400,000 yuan.

Cao now has more than 600 goats and helps fellow villagers raise theirs.

However, he said he is in no hurry to expand the scale of his operation. When the overall economic environment improves and the need for goats grows, he might consider it, he added.

zoushuo@chinadaily.com.cn