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NZ astrophotographer says viral satellite-trail composite is not AI
The Guardian reports New Zealand photographer Brendan Larsen stacked hundreds of Mount Taranaki night shots showing satellite trails after some viewers called the image AI-generated.
- New headline Was: “The night-sky image so incredible the NZ man behind it has been accused of using AI”
- Our desk filed its story
Based on reporting by The Guardian
A New Zealand astrophotographer whose stacked night-sky image of satellite trails over Mount Taranaki drew a large online audience is answering claims that the picture was made with generative AI, The Guardian reported1.
According to the newspaper, Brendan Larsen, 51, photographed the sky over the North Island peak for about two hours in September, taking hundreds of short exposures that he later combined in Adobe Photoshop, spending many hours on the composite1.
The Guardian said the finished picture shows about 1,400 satellites and about 14,000 trails as a dense grid above the mountain, and that Larsen posted it in mid-October, after which it was viewed millions of times1.
Some viewers called the image AI-generated1. Larsen told the paper that synthetic images are harder to tell from photographs, that the reaction is frustrating, and that he recorded his process on video in part to show how the work was made1.
The Guardian also summarized his concern that satellites and light pollution have increased in the years he has photographed the sky, and cited broader estimates of about 16,000 working satellites plus debris, plus warnings from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the United Nations about atmospheric and astronomy effects1.
What remains unknown from this account is how many of the viral copies were AI recreations, and whether independent astronomers have audited the composite frame by frame1.
