How I got the shot: the Tuschinshan-Atlas comet

This is one photo, it’s not a combination of shots. There were three major difficulties in making it:

1. The paraglider pilot had to run in a moonless night on uneven ground (with no wind that night)
2. Concerning the photographic technique, the comet and the stars gave off very little light, the paraglider nothing at all
3. In the frame, the glider at 20m distance was big and the comet at 71,000,000 km very small.

In October 2024 the local press said that the Tuschinshan-Atlas comet would be visible to the naked eye in the coming days. A little later I learned that it would not come again for 80,000 years or “probably never”. I said to myself that I would be stupid not to try to see it.

Living in Corsica outside a city I do not suffer from light pollution and by moving a little I can have a clear view to the west. Comet Tuschinshan-Atlas would pass 71 million km from Earth and would be seen for about ten days. It should be visible from around 7.45pm to 9.45pm and with each day that passed it would appear less bright and higher in the sky.

I set up for my first try on Saturday 12 October. But actually, what does a comet look like? And how do I photograph it? And now it’s hidden behind the clouds… I was home by 9pm.

The next day I set up in a higher place, the sky was clear, and I waited until 8pm then went home. But the next day I discovered a host of images on social networks taken by all the amateur or professional photographers in the region. Let’s just say I was very angry. Had I left too early? I still don’t know.

On Monday 14th the sky was cloudy and I stayed at home. In the meantime the idea of taking a picture with a paraglider came to mind. But I had to start from scratch, especially since I still hadn’t seen the comet.

On Tuesday 15th we were in place with the photo equipment and a wing. The wind was almost perfect but the comet remained behind the clouds. I was then immobilised for four days due to health problems. From my bed I contemplated four days of bad weather, without regrets.

Sunday 20th I went back but alone because no one was available to accompany me. And there I finally saw it. In fact, I guessed it more than I could see it. It had entered its least luminous period but the 45 million pixels of the sensor of my Nikon D850 had no trouble imortalisng it.

The next day, Monday 21st, I warned my friends. The sky would be clear and I had managed to photograph it. So there were five of us and given the conditions it was not too much.

Alain helped Pierre to do his pre-flight in the dark night. Yvan would light the first 15m of the irregular ground of the run-up, Laurent would light the remaining five metres up to a mark on the ground where the photo would be taken.

When Pierre arrived at this mark that he could not see Laurent would let out a shout to announce to Pierre that he had arrived at the right place and must throw himself forward so that his movement was dynamic and photogenic. I was located 20m further on and Laurent’s shout would announce to me that I must trigger the camera. At this point Yvan and Laurent will have already turned off their torches so that there was no stray light.

We wait almost an hour, the wind is from behind, impossible to inflate. The wind is finally zero. Pierre and his Ozone Swift 6 take off. The camera is mounted on the tripod, the frame is fixed, the upper surface of the glider is touching the edge of the frame. I misjudged the distance at which I should be.

It takes the four of them 10 minutes to help Pierre get his glider out of the aggressive grass and to put it back in place for a second try. Pierre is too determined: he does a somersault and spreads out at full length. In one photo the alien shape at the bottom left is him…

Shocked by the fall they are witnessing, my “assistants” Yvan and Laurent do not turn off their flashlights. This gives this light effect because the camera photographs the scene for eight seconds.

The third try was the right one.

The shutter time is eight seconds. This is the time needed for the comet and the stars to be visible in the image. During this time the camera is on a tripod, it must not move so that the image is clear. However, the glider is moving. That means if by chance the glider reflects enough light on the sensor we would see it cross the frame for eight seconds but it would be blurry.

The solution is to freeze the movement of the glider with a flash that lasts about 1/1000th of a second. Triggered by a remote-control system It is placed further away and directed to illuminate only the glider and the pilot, but not the ground.

Thanks to my comet crew: Pierre Marques (pilot), Yvan, Alain and Laurent.

Jacques Paul-Stefani is a professional photographer and has been paragliding, and taking photographs of paragliding, for nearly 30 years. He lives and flies in Corsica