To create the striking visual, Larsen spent roughly 40 hours in Adobe Photoshop layering 578 exposures and erasing stars to reveal approximately 1,400 satellites. He documented the entire editing process on video after anticipating that viewers might dismiss the authentic composite as AI-generated art. The final result has drawn tens of millions of views and gained him 15,000 social media followers, though Larsen expressed frustration that others used AI tools to generate flawed copies of his work. Beyond the technical debate, the image underscores mounting warnings from the United Nations and researchers regarding space debris and astronomical disruption.
Key points
Advancements in artificial intelligence imagery have made it increasingly difficult for a…: Advancements in artificial intelligence imagery have made it increasingly difficult for audiences to identify genuine astrophotography techniques.
The visual documentation of orbital congestion reinforces United Nations warnings regardi…: The visual documentation of orbital congestion reinforces United Nations warnings regarding risks to darkness, astronomy, and atmospheric chemistry.
Larsen hopes the widespread attention generated by the viral photograph will encourage pu…: Larsen hopes the widespread attention generated by the viral photograph will encourage public debate about protecting the night sky.
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A photograph showing thousands of satellites cross-hatching the night sky over New Zealand appeared so extraordinary the astrophotographer who captured it is fighting accusations it was created by AI.
To create his spectacular image – now viewed millions of times online – Brendan Larsen spent two hours in September snapping hundreds of photographs of the night sky over Mount Taranaki in the North Island.
Larsen, 51, says he set his camera up to take an unlimited number of eight-second-long shots, with a two-second gap in between each photo. “I left her running for two hours and captured 578 photos … That was the easy part.”
The hard part came next. Larsen spent about 40 hours layering the individual photos – each of which contained about 25 satellites – over one another, using Adobe Photoshop. Much of the time was spent painstakingly erasing stars, to reveal the satellites.
“I could start to see the pattern emerging and realised: ‘Wow, this looks really awesome.’ I knew if I carried on it would look even better and more impressive in terms of satellite…
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