A Hillcrest astrophotographer received an unexpected phone call direct from Hollywood earlier this year, asking if some of his photos could be licensed for Project Hail Mary – a big production movie based on the sci-fi novel by Andy Weir.
Rod Prazeres, who started astrophotography in 2023, said a Los Angelos production company reached out to him via social media, after seeing his images on Instagram.
“They were working on a sci-fi film and asked if I’d be open to licensing some of my work for a sequence,” he said.
“That message instantly had me excited and sceptical at the same time.”
“A video call followed soon after and I remember thinking; this can’t be real.”
Mr Prazeres said the company has now licensed some of his work for the movie, with a selection of his images to appear in the end credits with his credit included.
“In a world where CGI and AI are everywhere, it meant a lot to know they were genuinely excited to use real astronomical data and real structures from the night sky, rather than generating something from scratch,” he said.
“It felt like a win not just for me, but for the astrophotography community too.”
Mr Prazeres’ said his passion for astrophotography started with a “simple fascination with the night sky”.
“I became drawn to the challenge of capturing objects that are incredibly far away and revealing detail and colour that we can’t see with the naked eye,” he said.
“What still amazes me is that so much of this began from my own backyard, imaging from suburban skies and realising just how much is hidden above us.”
“Since then, it has become a real passion for me and a creative outlet that combines both technical precision and artistic expression.”
To capture detailed images of the night sky, Mr Prazeres said he uses a combination of specialised equipment.
“I use a telescope, a dedicated astronomy camera, and a tracking mount that follows the movement of the sky very precisely,” he said.
“Rather than taking one single photo, I capture many long exposure images of the same target over several hours, and sometimes across multiple nights.”
“Those images are then calibrated, stacked, and carefully processed using astrophotography software to bring out the faint detail, colour, and structure hidden in the data.”
Project Hail Mary is produced and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, starring Ryan Gosling and is set to be released Australia this month (March).
To check out Rod Prazeres work – his social media pages are @deepskyjourney (Instagram) and Rod Prazeres Astrophotography (Facebook).
