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Posts Tagged ‘Astronomy’

This iOS 14 widget adds NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day to your homescreen

04 Oct

With the release of Apple’s iOS 14, users can finally add widgets to their homescreen and subsequent pages, paving the way for unique ways to customize your iOS device. Inspired by a widget from iOS Reddit client Apollo, developer Mark Hambly decided to make his own to show off the beautiful astrophotography of NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) project.

A collection of various layouts you can achieve using the new widgets in iOS 14.

The aptly named APOD app, which is free to download (and ad-free), will refresh every day with the latest image(s) from NASA’s APOD feed. You can customize the widget to show up as a 2×2 square, 2×4 rectangle or a 4×4 square to squeeze it into whatever homescreen setup you’ve customized. The widget offers the option to show the current APOD, a random APOD or cycle through a collection of your favorite APOD images you’ve marked within the app.

You can pick between the APOD, a random APOD from the past or a collection of Favorite APOD images you’ve saved.

If you want additional information on the image being displayed, you can tap on the widget and it will take you into the app, where you’ll see the image’s title, the date it was released and the description provided by NASA. You can also browse through the Astronomy Picture of the Day by date and even tap the ‘Random’ button that will surprise you from a past image.

The app is still in its infancy, as it was quickly developed ‘over a few evenings’ as part of a personal hackathon, so if you do come across the bug, just report it to the developer through the app’s settings. The app is available in the iOS App Store.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Slideshow: Shortlisted photos from the 2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest

20 Jul

2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year Shortlist

The Royal Observatory (Greenwich) has announced the shortlisted photos for its Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2020 competition. This year marks the 12th year of the competition, which is sponsored by Insight Investment and is held in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

A record-breaking 5,200 photographs were submitted from nearly 70 countries across the world. The competition will ultimately result in one overall winner and winners within nine categories (Skyscapes; Aurorae; People and Space; Our Sun; Our Moon; Planets Comets and Asteroids; Stars and Nebulae; Galaxies; and Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year), as well as two special prizes (The Sir Patrick Moor Prize for Best Newcomer Award and The Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation Award). The winning images will be announced on September 10, 2020.

We’ve rounded up a few of the shortlisted images and presented them in the accompanying gallery. You can find out more about the Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition on the Royal Museums Greenwich website.

Geysir Aurora © Phil Halper (UK)

About the image: Close to the Spring and Autumn Equinox, the Earth’s magnetic field aligns with the incoming solar wind to create a better chance for aurora activity. The photographer had been waiting for signs of solar storm near the equinox date hoping that the ‘Russell-McPherron effect’ would kick in. During the last weekend in September it seemed there would be favourable terrestrial and space weather conditions, so the photographer travelled with a friend to Iceland. They were not disappointed. The northern lights danced all weekend, with clear skies every night. This shot shows the famous Geysir of Iceland preparing to blow with the aurora behind it.

Gear: Sony ILCE-7S camera, 24 mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 2000, 2-second exposure

Northern Dragon’s Eye © Elena Pakhalyuk (Ukraine)

About the image: The photographer loves to travel, especially exploring the north and chasing the Northern Lights. Trying to capture how ordinary things can take magical forms under the lights, the photographer selected and lit this rocky outcrop and waited for the aurora to work its magic.

Gear: Canon EOS 6D camera, 14 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 1600, 30-second exposure

Hamnøy Lights © Andreas Ettl (Germany)

About the image: After two weeks of storm, clouds and snow in the Lofoten Islands, the sky finally cleared up, providing perfect conditions for hunting the northern lights. The photographer waited patiently in their car for the light show to begin and on the first sign of the aurora borealis in the sky, he set up his camera at this famous overlook of the idyllic fishing village Hamnøy. The image is a manual exposure blend consisting of one base image for the sky and foreground plus a total of seven bracketed images to balance the highlights and shadows in the fishing village and water.

Gear: Nikon Z7 camera, Tamron SP 15-30mm F/2.8 Di VC USD 17 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 800, 10-second exposure

NGC 253 – Starbust Galaxy in Sculptor © Terry Robison (Canada)

About the image: This image depicts an object that many will recognise in the southern hemisphere skies – NGC 253, The Sculptor Galaxy. It is an intermediate galaxy located within the constellation Sculptor and is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible to us. It is also one of the dustiest and currently undergoing a period of intense star formation. The photographer’s goals were to present this large and bright galaxy in a way that retains its subtle colouring and intricate textures throughout its disk.

Gear: RCOS 10″ telescope at f/9.1, AstroPhysics AP-900 mount, SBIG STL-11000 camera, L-RGB-Ha composite, 34 hours total exposure

M16 © Alexios Theodorov (Russia)

About the image: This entry tries to catch the feel of stargazing through basic optical instrument – a kind of Galileo’s telescope. Special processing of the image includes converting to Lab, channel mixing, increasing contrast, and applying filters, with the aim of illustrating that images with limited colour range may be as stunning as full colour ones.

Some Moons are Close, and Some are Small and Far Away © Andy Casely (Australia)

About the image: On 12th August, our moon occulted Saturn and its moons. The shadowed limb of the waxing gibbous Moon gradually hid the planet over several minutes. Shadowed mountains are visible against the bright planet and rings as an irregular edge where the planet is hidden. To Saturn’s left are two of its own icy moons, Tethys (lower) and Dione (upper), tiny specks in the darkness.

This is an image the photographer has long wanted to catch; the contrast of a big far away planet against the sharp details of the nearby Moon.

Gear: Celestron C14 Schmidt Cassegrain telescope at f/11, Celestron GCX-L mount, ZWO ASI290MM camera, Saturn: 2 x 30-seconds, Tethys and Dione: 4 x 30-seconds, Moon 1 x 60-seconds exposures

39% Crescent Moon © Richard Addis (UK)

About the image: This image of the Moon at 39% illumination was captured through eleven videos of different areas, which were stacked and then stitched together. The saturation process revealed the mineral compositions in the Lunar Basalts on the surface. These vivid browns and blues are due to high concentrations of titanium and iron. The photographer loves the contrast along the terminator and the close-up detail and clarity of this image.

Gear: Celestron Nexstar 6SE telescope, Celestron Advanced GT mount, ZWO ASI120MC camera, 4,400 x 0.08-second exposures.

Eruption…. © Elena Pakhalyuk (Ukraine)

About the image: The photographer was inspired to imagine what the Crimean peninsula would look like in the distant past, when thousands of volcanoes erupted on Earth. She used lighting and long exposure to illustrate this. The resulting image sees everything combined into one large panorama image and processed in a photo editor.

Gear: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera, Sky: Canon 24 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 3200, 22 x 20-second exposures. Foreground: Samyang 14 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 1600, 23 x 20-second exposures

Stargazing Giant © Dai Jianfeng (China)

About the image: This image is the view of the Milky Way rising above the Moai at Ahu Akivi. Ahu Akivi is a particularly sacred place in Easter Island in the Valparaíso Region of Chile, looking out towards the South Pacific Ocean. The site has seven moai, all of equal shape and size, and is also known as a celestial observatory that was set up around the 16th century. The shot highlights the central bulge of the Milky Way, the constellation Scorpio, as well as the planets Jupiter and Saturn.

Gear: Canon EOS 6D Mark camera, Sigma art 14 mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 12800, 10 x 15-second exposures

Meeting © Nicolai Brügger (Germany)

About the image: After a long hike and a little bit of climbing to the top of the mountain, the photographer was able to see the Milky Way. He only had five minutes time to take the panorama shot before the clouds moved. The photographer and his friend are pictured standing on the edge, looking out at the sky and over the city of Füssen in Germany.

Gear: Nikon D810 camera, Sigma 14 mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 4000, 33 x 20-second exposures

The Red Lake of Stars © Bryony Richards (USA)

About the image: Years ago, before over-fishing, Little Redfish Lake was called as such due to the vast numbers of salmon turning the lake a red colour. The red colouration is no longer seen because of salmon, but the colour of sunsets and airglow during the night still turn the waters a vibrant red. It is these beautiful warm echoes of red, combined with the mirror-like reflections of the Sawtooth Mountains in the distance and the alignment of the Milky Way with the mountains that make Little Redfish Lake one of the most spectacular places the photographer has ever shot at night. The photographer recalls that ‘we were fortunate enough that night to have the lakeshore to ourselves, just three of us, and a rather excited dog who tried his best not to run into our tripods! We spent the sunset here, waiting for the stars to come out and the Milky Way core to rise, marvelling at the red colour of the water.’

Gear: Sony A7riii camera, Sky: 50 mm f/2 lens, ISO 1600, 121-second exposure, Foreground: 50 mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 1600, 111-second exposure, Reflection: 50 mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 6400, 30-second exposure

The Cave of the Wild Horses © Bryony Richards (USA)

About the image: Located in the heart of the desert in Southern Utah, the Cave of the Wild Horses, with its copious wildlife, petroglyphs, rock varnish, and framed view of the summer Milky Way in its entrance, makes for a fairy-tale place to take astrophotographs. This photograph is one of the most complicated that the photographer has taken to date due to the location of the cave and the number of foreground images taken. Getting to the cave involves a long hike through the desert, over sandstone plateaus, through brush and desert sand. Upon reaching the cave, the photographer decided that she wanted to take a large panorama in order to preserve the feeling of looking out of the cave to the sky beyond.

Gear: Sony A7riii camera, Sky: 50mm f/2.2 lens, ISO 1250, 90-second exposure, Foreground: 50 mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 1600, 120-second exposure

Galactic Portal © Marcin Zajac (USA)

About the image: On the photographer’s trip to Australia, he travelled to the coastal town of Kiama, where he captured his first Milky Way image of the year – his first Milky Way image taken from the Southern Hemisphere. Once the sun set, the photographer made his way into the cave and waited for a few hours for the core of the Milky Way to appear. Being unfamiliar with the southern sky, the photographer was surprised to also see Jupiter appear soon after.

Nikon D600 camera, Sky: 24mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 6400, 15-second exposure, Foreground: 24mm f/8 lens, ISO 200, 30-second exposure

Thor’s Helmet © Ignacio Diaz Bobillo (Argentina)

About the image: One of the attractive things about astrophotography is that one can always improve on a previous image of an object, by going deeper with a longer integration, by trying new processing techniques, by changing the scale and framing, by using a better gear. This gives endless possibilities. In this particular case, the photographer went back to an image he did last year, and added 19 hours of data to complete a 25-hour integration. It is a bicolor narrowband image of a well-known nebula, which is sculpted by a central Wolf-Rayet star. With the added data, the structures are revealed in more detail and depth, and the surrounding nebulosity expands well towards the borders of the frame. The result, a ghostly helmet that seems to float in outer space.

Gear: Astro-Physics 167 FLZ telescope at f/7.2, Astrodon 3 nm filters, Astro-Physics 1100 mount, Apogee Alta U8300 camera, Ha-OIII composite, 75 x 20-minute exposures

Statue of Liberty Nebula © Martin Pugh (Australia)

About the image: Photographed using narrowband filters to accentuate the energy levels occurring in each emission line, sulphur was mapped to red, hydrogen to green and oxygen to blue. An additional 4 hours per RGB channel were acquired and substituted into the image, particularly for the stars. While aptly titled the Statue of Liberty Nebula (NGC 3576), the irony is that this is a southern hemisphere object.At lower left in the image is NGC 3603 containing the Starburst Cluster.NGC 3576 is located in the Carina arm of the Milky Way at approximately 20,000 light years distant.

Gear: Planewave CDK 17″ telescope at f/6.8, Bisque Paramount ME mount, SBIG STXL11002 camera, RGB-Ha-SII-OIII composite, Total exposure 35.5 hours

The Magnificent: Rho Ophiuchi Complex © Mario Cogo (Italy)

About the image: This image captures the photographer’s favourite astrophotography field and one of the most vibrant, colourful nebulas in space. It shows many interesting deep-sky objects as Rho Ophiuchi the triple star surrounded by the blue reflection nebula IC 4604 on top-left, the red supergiant star Antares and one of closest globular cluster to the Solar System M4 to the right. This two panel mosaic was taken under the dark Namibian sky over two nights in August 2019.

Gear: Takahashi FSQ106 ED APO refractor telescope at f/5, Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO mount, Canon EOS 6D Cooling CDS Mod camera, ISO 1600, 13 hours total exposure

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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See this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners

26 Oct

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

The Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the winners of its annual astronomy photo competition. American photographer Brad Goldpaint’s Transport the Soul, a dreamy photo of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy hanging over Moab, Utah, took the People and Space category’s top prize and was named Overall Winner. A total of 31 winning images were selected across 11 categories – take a look at them here and visit Royal Observatory Greenwich’s site to get yourself ready for next year’s competition.

Transport the Soul © Brad Goldpaint (USA) – WINNER (PEOPLE AND SPACE) AND OVERALL WINNER
Interested in adding a ‘human element’ to his photographs, once the quarter moon rose and revealed the incredible, vast landscape of the shale hills below the viewpoint, the lone photographer, to the left of the frame, stood motionless while he captured this photograph. The Andromeda Galaxy, quarter moon, Milky Way Galaxy, and position of the photographer all combined to create a captivating, harmonious portrait of a night sky photographer at work.
Moab, Utah, USA, 20 May 2017
Nikon D810 camera, 14-mm f/4.0 lens, ISO 2500, 20-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

PEOPLE AND SPACE: Living Space © Andrew Whyte (UK) – RUNNER-UP
This is a single-frame image and not a speculative composite. Situated on a south-coast peninsula, this street falls within a part-night street lighting zone; when the lights go out, there’s nothing to interfere with the view of the stars until continental Europe- miles across the English Channel. The scene might be perceived incongruous or surreal and almost shows how accustomed we’ve become to the loss of night sky views due to light pollution. It was a conscious decision by the photographer to feature the unlit streetlamps, hinting how it might be possible to undo the damage and restore awe-inspiring views. Pagham, West Sussex, UK, 29 April 2017
Sony ILCE-7S camera, 28-mm f/2 lens, ISO 6400, 15-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

PEOPLE AND SPACE: Me versus the Galaxy © Mark McNeill (UK) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
This photograph was taken just after Christmas at the Sycamore Gap, Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland and showcases the majestic winter Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy. The temperature was about -4°C and the photographer arrived from Lancashire at 11am but had to wait till 2.30am for the Moon to set and for all the stars to be visible. Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland, UK, 28 December 2017
Nikon D810 camera, 20-mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 5000, 10-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

AURORAE: Speeding on the Aurora lane © Nicolas Lefaudeux (France) – WINNER
A hazy, subtle auroral band is leisurely drifting across the sky providing an unusual perspective with faint bands appearing to radiate from a vanishing point, like a road disappearing over the horizon. As the aurora glided overhead, it made the photographer feel like he was driving a spaceship about to reach light speed toward the Big Dipper. This view lasted less than a minute.
Sirkka, Finland, 30 March 2017
Sony ILCE-7S2 camera, 20-mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 2000, 3.2-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

AURORAE: Castlerigg Stone Circle © Matthew James Turner (UK) – RUNNER-UP
This was the photographer’s first ever encounter with the aurora borealis in the UK. The Moon was bright enough to illuminate the foreground arena of standing stones perfectly and the aurora surfaced from behind the majestic mountains, giving the appearance that the hills themselves were emitting the ethereal green glow.
Keswick, Cumbria, UK, 7 November 2017
Sony ILCE-7R camera, 22-mm f/4 lens, ISO 1000, 30-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

AURORAE: Aurorascape © Mikkel Beiter (Denmark) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
The conditions to shoot an aurora that night were not ideal because of the bright Moon but the photographer managed to capture the breathtaking Aurora Borealis above the fjord in the gorgeous Lofoten archipelago, in Northern Norway. The small pool of water with rocks made the perfect foreground and a natural leading line into the frame.
Haukland Beach, Lofoten, Norway, 26 February 2018
Canon EOS 5DS R camera, 17-mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 2000, 8-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

GALAXIES: NGC 3521, Mysterious Galaxy © Steven Mohr (Australia) – WINNER
The spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is located around 26 million light-years away in the constellation Leo and presents complex scene, with enormous amounts of surrounding dust and stray stars glowing far out from its disk. Emerging from the photographer’s colour data was a bright array of contrasting colour tones, generated by aging yellow-red stars, younger burning aggressively blue-white stars, and various nebulae throughout the disk. This image comprises approximately 20.5 hours of exposure time, collecting data in various filter types.
Carrapooee, Victoria, Australia, 13 February 2018
Planewave CDK 12.5 telescope, Astrodon Gen II LRGB, Baarder H? lens at 2541 mm f/8, Astro Physics 900 mount, SBIG STXL-11000 camera, Luminance: 33 x 1200 seconds [11hrs], H?: 12 x 1200 seconds [4hrs], Red-Green-Blue: 450 x 12–18 seconds

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

GALAXIES: From Mirach © Raul Villaverde Fraile (Spain) – RUNNER-UP
This photograph is a mosaic of 24 images and depicts how the galaxies Messier 31 and Messier 33 appear symmetrically on either side of the star Mirach. Despite being the two galaxies closest to our own, they are still significantly further away from us than Mirach, which is a star within our own Milky Way. We can also see the two smaller satellite galaxies of M31, M32 and M110.
Ocentejo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, 14 November 2017
Takahashi FSQ 106ED telescope, Idas lps 2-inch lens, SkyWatcher Nq6pro mount, Canon 6D camera, 414-mm f/3.9 lens, ISO 1600, 24x30x400″ exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

GALAXIES: Fireworks Galaxy NGC 6939 – SN 2017 EAW © César Blanco (Spain) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
This image showcases the open cluster of stars NGC 6939 and the galaxy NGC 6949 with the stellar explosion of the supernova SN 2017 EAW. The data gathering for this image was carried out over a few different days and the photographer tried to obtain sharp details as well as some of the ‘foggy’ background light. The image depicts the great variety of objects we can observe in the Universe, a stellar explosion with an enormous diversity of the colours of the stars which depends on the temperature, a magnificent galaxy that can be seen directly face-on; the show of the supernova, a fantastic phenomenon which is produced not very often in our skies; and a dim nebula of IFN type in the background. Escobar de Campos, Castile and León, Spain, 18 June 2017
Takahashi FSQ 106ED telescope, Idas lps 2-inch lens, SkyWatcher Nq6pro mount, Canon 6D camera, 414-mm f/3.9 lens, ISO 1600, 24x30x400″ exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

OUR MOON: Inverted Colours of the boundary between Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquilitatis © Jordi Delpeix Borrell (Spain) – WINNER
Inverting the image is a legacy of deep sky imaging, where tenuous extensions of galaxies and nebulae can be more visible on a negative image because our eye more easily detects tenuous dark details on a white background. This is also useful in Moon imaging helping to reveal otherwise barely detectable soil features such as ray systems. Low contrast areas like the lunar seas and ray systems, look much more interesting because low contrast details are revealed and according to the photographer this is a new way for Moon exploration that should be considered.
L’ Ametlla del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain, 6 December 2017
Celestron 14 telescope, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro mount, ZWO ASI 224MC camera, 4,200-mm f/12 lens, multiple 20ms exposures

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

OUR MOON: Earth Shine © Peter Ward (Australia) – RUNNER-UP
During a total solar eclipse the brightness of the solar corona hides details of the Moon to the human eye. But by layering multiple digital exposures in this image from 2 seconds to 1/2000th of a second, the photographer managed to reveal much more. The image showcases not just the brilliant solar corona, but the newest possible of new moons, seen here illuminated by sunlight reflecting off the Earth.
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA, 21 August 2017
Takahashi FSQ85 telescope, Losmandy Starlapse mount, Canon 5D Mark IV camera, 500-mm f/5 lens, 9 exposures ranging from ISO 100 to 900, 150 2-seconds through to 1/4000th second exposures

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

OUR MOON: From the Dark Side © László Francsics (Hungary) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
The photographer had planned to capture a high resolution image of the morning crescent Moon for a long time. The waning crescent Moon only rises high above the horizon of the Carpathian basin in autumn, but in this period of the year the weather is usually cloudy and rainy. Fortunately, in October 2017, an anticyclone wiped the area clear, which allowed the photographer to take a good resolution picture capturing the special atmosphere of the thin crescent in a glitteringly bright sky.
Budapest, Hungary, 10 October 2017
Homemade 250-mm f/4 Carbon Newton telescope, f/11, 250/1000 mirror lens, Skywatcher EQ6 mount, ZWO ASI 174 MM camera, 6250 mm f/4 lens increased to f/11, multiple 1/200-second exposures

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

OUR SUN: Sun King, Little King, and God of War © Nicolas Lefaudeux (France) – WINNER
In order to capture this mesmerising image, the photographer chose the area according to weather forecasts to make sure he would get a clear sky. The image shows the Sun corona in all its glory during the August total solar eclipse. It is flanked on left hand side by the blue star Regulus – the little King – and by the red planet Mars on the right. The many radial streamers of the solar Corona are a real crown for the Sun King and the corona can be traced almost to 30 solar radii distance. The total exposure duration of 100-seconds was recorded in more than 120 individual images and it is a setup consisting of both a fast f/1.4 lens, at full aperture to get as much signal as possible, and a large buffer camera at base ISO to avoid overexposure. The inner corona was recorded using a longer focal length setup.
Unity, Oregon, USA, 21 August 2017
AF-S NIKKOR 105-mm f/1.4E ED lens, Nikon D810 camera on an untracked tripod, 105 mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 64, multiple exposures of 0.3-second, 0.6-second and 1.3-second

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

OUR SUN: Coloured Eruptive Prominence © Stuart Green (UK) – RUNNER-UP
In this image the photographer managed to capture an eruptive prominence just hours after this active region produced a massive X9.0 class solar flare. Close to the solar limb and presented here in an inverted format (black to white) and colour enhanced to create a warm sunny glow, the photograph showcases the beautiful 3D structure within the hydrogen chromosphere. Captured in hydrogen alpha light at 656.3nm, the photographer used a 150mm solar telescope and monochrome machine vision camera to record a video sequence which was stacked to bring out the fine details and image processing techniques to produce colour and a backlit effect in order to enhance the spicule features around the solar limb.
Preston, Lancashire, UK, 9 September 2017
Home-built telescope based on iStar Optical 150mm f/10 lens, double stacked hydrogen-alpha filter at 5250 mm, Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro mount, Basler acA1920-155um camera, 150-mm f/35 lens, multiple 0.006-second exposures as an AVI

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

OUR SUN: AR2673 © Haiyang Zong (China) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
AR2673 is a large sunspot group which formed in 2017. Clearly visible is the beautiful “rice grain” structure of the paler, outer regions of the sunspots.
Tongzhou, Beijing, China, 5 September 2017
Sky-Watcher DOB10 GOTO telescope, Optolong R Filter, QHY5III290M camera, 3,600-mm f/4.7 lens, ISO 160, 0.7ms exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

PLANETS, COMETS AND ASTEROIDS: The Grace of Venus © Martin Lewis (UK) – WINNER
Shortly before sunset, a slender and graceful Venus hangs low in the western sky, just 10 days before meeting the Sun at inferior conjunction. This is an infra-red image of that view, taken using a monochrome digital video camera mounted on a reflector telescope. The recording was processed to remove the blurring effects of our atmosphere and combine the video frames to create a single still image of the planet. The infra-red filter used on the camera helps steady the effects of atmospheric movement.
St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK, 15 March 2017
Home-built 444-mm Dobsonian reflecting telescope, Astronomik 807nm IR filter, Home-built Equatorial tracking platform, ZWO ASI174MM camera, 12.4-m f/28 lens, 6msec frame time, 5.3sec total exposure duration

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

PLANETS, COMETS AND ASTEROIDS: Parade of the Planets © Martin Lewis (UK) – RUNNER-UP
During the course of just one year the photographer managed to image surface details on every planet in our Solar System from his own back garden. At the start of the year, the photographer had captured distant Mars, eight months after opposition, sporting a tiny polar cap and dark features. Later on, he captured Venus, then Jupiter and Saturn. In September, the photographer had imaged details on the rocky face of Mercury for the first time and in November he recorded Uranus’s distinct polar region, making the set complete. The more challenging planets, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune, required IR (infrared) imaging to bring out surface details and have been colourised to match their more normal visual appearance. All images are displayed at the same relative size that they would appear through a telescope.
St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK, 1 November 2017
Home-built 444-mm Dobsonian Newtonian reflector telescope (Mercury used 222-mm Dobsonian), various IR filters for Uranus, Neptune, Mercury, Saturn (L). UV filter for Venus, home-built Equatorial Platform, ZWO ASI174MC/ASI174MM/ ASI290MM camera, various focal lengths f/12 to f/36, various exposures

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

PLANETS, COMETS AND ASTEROIDS: Comet C/2016 R2 Panstarrs the blue carbon monoxide comet © Gerald Rhemann (Austria) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
Still relatively far from the Sun, the comet’s well-developed ion tail shines bright in the night sky. Emission from unusually abundant ionized carbon monoxide (CO+) molecules fluorescing in the increasing sunlight is largely responsible for the beautiful blue tint. This is a median stack of the total event from 5p.m. until 11.12p.m and the comet’s magnitude was approx. 12.5 mag.
Eichgraben, Lower Austria, Austria, 19 January 2018
ASA 12-inch (300 mm) Astrograph telescope at f/3.62, ASA DDM 85 telescope mount, ASI ZWO 1600 MC colour CCD camera, exposure: RGB composite, 4.6-hours total exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

SKYSCAPES: Circumpolar © Ferenc Szémár (Hungary) – WINNER
The cold winter weather weaves a transparent blanket above the human settlements. If one rises above this coherent surface of mist, the colourful star trails can be brought together with the glowing lights of the cities. This extremely long capture sequence took half of the winter’s nights facing the clear northern sky as the circumpolar star Almach, also known as Gamma Andromedae, just touched the horizon.
Gatyatet?, Hungary, 17 February 2018
Minolta 80–200 f/2.8 telescope, tripod, Sony SLT-A99V camera, 135-mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 640, 50 x 300-second exposures

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

SKYSCAPES: Eclipsed Moon Trail © Chuanjin Su (China) – RUNNER-UP
On 31 January 2018, a spectacular total lunar eclipse occurred. The photographer set his camera for a four-hour stack exposure and after he took about one thousand images, he finally captured an image that reflects the changes of the Moon’s colour and brightness before, during and after the eclipse. The picture reminded the photographer of the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod, which is the weapon of the Monkey King, who is described in ancient Chinese literature.
Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China, 31 January 2018
Sony ILCE-7RM2 camera, 17-mm f/4 lens, ISO 100, 950 x 15-seconds

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

SKYSCAPES: Midnight Glow over Limfjord © Ruslan Merzlyakov (Latvia) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
The dark summer sky in Denmark and the ideal weather on 22 May 2017 allowed the photographer to capture this magnificent orange glow over Limfjord, a beautiful place just five minutes away from where the photographer had lived for six years. The weather was so calm and quiet, which made the photographer think that time was standing still. Nykøbing Mors, Denmark, 22 May 2017
Canon EOS 6D camera, 14-mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 400, 10-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

STARS AND NEBULAE: Corona Australis Dust Complex © Mario Cogo (Italy) – WINNER
Under the dark Namibian sky, the photographer set his camera to a six-hour exposure in order to capture the CrA Molecular Complex, a large, dark and irregular area in the northern part of Corona Australis where we can see reflection nebulas NGC 6726-27-29, dark dust cloud Bernes 157, globular cluster NGC 6723 and other objects. Interestingly, there is a huge difference in distance: under 500 light years for the dust complex and 30,000 light years for the globular cluster.
Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, Namibia, 18 August 2017
Takahashi FSQ 106 ED telescope, Astro-Physics 1200 GTO mount, Canon EOS 6D Cooling CDS Mod camera, 530-mm f/5 lens, ISO 1600, total 6-hours exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

STARS AND NEBULAE: Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula © Mario Cogo (Italy) – RUNNER-UP
The dark Namibian sky was the perfect location to capture the wonder of the Witch Head Nebula and Rigel. The Witch Head Nebula is a very faint molecular gas cloud which is illuminated by supergiant star Rigel, the seventh brightest star of the sky and the brightest star in the constellation of Orion.
Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, Namibia, 20 August 2017
Takahashi FSQ 106 ED telescope, Astro-Physics 1200 GTO mount, Canon EOS 6D Cooling CDS Mod camera, 383-mm f/3.6 lens, ISO 1600, 1, 3 and 6 min, total 5 Hours exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

STARS AND NEBULAE: Thackeray’s Globules in Narrowband Colour © Rolf Wahl Olsen (Denmark) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
Almost 5,900 light years away, toward the southern constellation Centaurus, lies a large beautiful nebula known as the Lambda Centauri Nebula. The intense light from stars in a young open cluster cause the surrounding gas to glow with a magenta hue from emission lines of ionised Hydrogen atoms. In the centre of the image, is a group of Bok globules, which are dark, dense collapsing patches of gas and dust where new stars are frequently born. These were discovered by South African astronomer, A. David Thackeray, in 1950 and are now known as Thackeray’s Globules and are a favourite target for backyard astrophotographers. The largest globule is two separate clouds that overlap slightly. While they appear small in the context of the grand nebula, these overlapping globules are each 1.4 light years across and together they contain more than 15 times the mass of our Sun.
Auckland, New Zealand, 13 May 2017
Homebuilt 12.5-inch f/4 Serrurier Truss Newtonian telescope, Losmandy G-11 mount, QSI 683wsg-8 camera, 1,450-mm 12.5” f/4 lens, 14 hours and 40 minute exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: Great Autumn Morning © Fabian Dalpiaz (Italy – aged 15) – WINNER
On an early Monday morning before taking an exam at school, the photographer decided to go out and take some images. Shooting on a 50mm lens the photographer got lucky and captured this incredible photograph of a meteor passing over the Dolomites. On the left side of the image the Moon is shining over the stunning landscape of the Alpe di Siusi with the autumn colours on the was illuminated only at 13.5 per cent.
Alpe di Siusi, Dolomites, South Tyrol, Italy, 16 October 2017
Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera, 50-mm panorama f/2.0 lens, ISO 6400, 8-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: The Eta Carinae Nebula © Logan Nicholson (Australia – aged 13) – RUNNER-UP
The Eta Carina Nebula, or NGC 3372, is the biggest and brightest nebula in the sky and is located in the constellation Carina. It is mostly made out of hydrogen, created when the bright orange star mid-left went nova, spewing out large amounts of hydrogen gas which now emits light at the Hydrogen-alpha wavelength. The photographer took and stacked multiple shots and processed them in Pixinsight.
Heathcote, Victoria, Australia, 16 December 2017
Takahashi MT-160 telescope, f/4.8 reducer for MT-160, Celestron CGEM mount, Canon EOS 700D camera, 776-mm f/4.8 lens, ISO 800, 12 x 5 minute exposures

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: Inverted Sun © Thea Hutchinson (UK – aged 11) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
This was the photographer’s first attempt at solar imaging and was from the observatory in her back garden in Wimbledon. She used her father’s solar scope and after following her father’s advice, the photographer beautifully captured our nearest star, the Sun. The picture is a mosaic of two stacked images that were merged in Photoshop CC, cropped and inverted. The final image was then converted to false colour.
London, UK, 24 September 2017
Lunt LS60 telescope, Celestron CGE Pro mount, ZWO ASI174MM camera, 1250 (500-mm with x2.5 Powermate) f/21 (f/8.3 x 2.5) lens, 2000 frames best 20% retained

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: First Impressions © Casper Kentish (UK – aged 8) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
After a few days of cloudy skies the photographer finally got the chance to use his birthday present, a new telescope. The clouds were moving fast so there was not much time to capture the Moon. With the help of his grandfather who kept moving the telescope and trying to keep an iPad at the right position, he managed to capture this wonderful and artistic image of his first viewing of our Moon.
Ponthirwaun, Ceredigion, UK, 23 January 2018
SkyWatcher Skyliner 200 p, SkyWatcher 25mm wide angle, Dobsonian mount, Apple iPad 5th generation, 3.3-mm f/2.4 lens, ISO 250, 1/17-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: A Valley on the Moon… © Davy van der Hoeven (Netherlands – aged 10) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
The photographer’s father taught him how to focus the telescope, capture and process the data. Once the telescope was set up the photographer started taking images of the surface of the Moon and even managed to capture more details than his father did in the past. Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Netherlands, 25 February 2018
Celestron C11 Schmidt Cassegrain telescope, Baader red filter, SkyWatcher NEQ6 mount, Imaging Resource DMK21 camera, 2,700-mm f/10 lens, 1/300-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

SIR PATRICK MOORE PRIZE FOR BEST NEWCOMER: Galaxy Curtain Call Performance © Tianhong Li (China) – WINNER
This was the last opportunity in 2017 to see the silver core of the Milky Way before it sunk below the horizon. It was accompanied by the gradual curtain call of Scorpio heralding the upward trend of Orion in the sky. Meanwhile the season of bright shooting stars quietly arrived. The image is stitched together from a total of twenty pictures.
Ming’antu, China, 23 September 2017
Nikon D810A camera, 35-mm f/2 lens; sky: ISO 1250, 16 x 60-second exposures, total 16 pictures; ground: ISO 640, 4 x 120-second exposures, total 4 pictures

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

ROBOTIC SCOPE: Two Comets with the Pleiades © Damian Peach (UK) – WINNER
The image showcases a very rare conjunction of two bright comets both passing the famous Pleiades star cluster in Taurus at the same time. Comet C/2017 O1 (ASASSN) is at far left while C2015 ER61 (PanSTARRS) is in the centre. Both comets have strikingly different appearances. The whole region is embedded in the faint nebulosity of the Taurus Molecular Cloud. The photographer used a remote telescope located in Mayhill, New Mexico.
Remote Astronomical Society (RAS) Observatory, Mayhill, New Mexico, USA, 19 September 2017
Takahashi FSQ106 telescope at 106 mm, Paramount ME mount, SBIG STL-11000M camera, 530-mm f/5 lens, exposure: four LRGB frames, each frame 30 minutes each

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 shortlist revealed

24 Jul

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

AR 2665 and Quiescent Prominence. © ?ukasz Sujka (Poland)

The sunspot AR2665 was one of the most active regions in 2017 on the right you can see a phenomenal quiescent prominence extending from our star, the Sun. This type of prominence lasts for a very long time and its structure is quite stable. The photo is a composition of two images: one of the magnificent prominence and one of the Sun’s surface. The surface is much brighter than the prominence so it is a negative to reveal details of Sun chromosphere (spicules and filaments).

Budy Dlutowskie, Poland, 9 July 2017

TS Individual 102/1100 telescope, etalon from Lunt50ThaPT+B1200+BelOptik ERF+TV barlow x2, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro mount, ZWO ASI 178 MM-C camera, 1100mm f/11 lens, 10ms exposure

Some of the best pictures of stars, planets and deep space have been revealed in the shortlist of the 2018 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The annual contest is run by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich London, and is currently in its 10th year. Organizers say they received 4200 images from amateur, professional and young photographers in 91 countries.

Entrants compete across eight categories for the top prize of £10,000 (approx. $ 13,000) while the under 16s stand a chance of winning £1500. Shortlisted and winning entries form part of a book of the completion, and an exhibition is held at the National Maritime Museum, also in Greenwich, London.

The overall winner, and the winners of the Sir Patrick Moore prize for Best Newcomer and Robotic Scope Image of the Year, will be announced on 23rd October 2018.

For more information see the Royal Museum Greenwich website.

Press release

ROYAL OBSERVATORY GREENWICH’s “INSIGHT INVESTMENT ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2018” SHORTLISTED IMAGES TO THIS YEAR’S COMPETITION SELECTED

– WINNERS ANNOUNCED 23 OCTOBER 2018
– EXHIBITION OPENS 24 OCTOBER 2018

A mesmerising mosaic of the Great Orion and the Running Man Nebula, a magical scene of an Aurora Borealis exploding over the south coast of Iceland, a solar transit of the International Space Station between the massive sunspots AR 12674 and AR 12673; Royal Observatory’s Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 has received thousands of exceptional images once more. The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich sponsored by Insight Investment and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its tenth year and continues to go from strength to strength, receiving over 4,200 spectacular entries from enthusiastic amateurs and professional photographers, taken from 91 countries spanning the globe. This year has also seen a phenomenal increase in entries from our aspiring young astrophotographers.

Shortlisted images from this year’s entrants include a glorious Milky Way looming over a thunderstorm that lights up the sky, star trails sweeping over the extraordinary sacred altars in Inner Mongolia, a majestic image of deep space framed by the Breiðamerkurjökull, the glacial tongue that extends from the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull.

The range of subjects is not just limited to our planet. Photographers have also captured sights from across our Solar System, galaxy and the wider universe; from the second largest planet, Jupiter, which lies 746 million miles away from Earth when the two are closest and over a billion miles apart at their most distant; the striking and often overlooked Nebula NGC 2023, at 4 light years in diameter it is one of the largest reflection nebulae ever discovered; to the bright IC 342 also known as the ‘Hidden Galaxy’ that sits near the galactic equator, an obscure area with thick cosmic gas, bright stars and dark dust.

The competition’s judges include renowned comedian and keen amateur astronomer, Jon Culshaw; Editor of BBC Sky at Night Magazine Chris Bramley; the Royal Observatory’s Public Astronomer, Dr Marek Kukula and a host of experts from the worlds of art and astronomy. The winners of the competition’s nine categories and two special prizes will be announced on Tuesday 23 October at a special award ceremony at the National Maritime Museum. This year’s and previous winning images will be displayed in a commemorative exhibition that will celebrate 10 years of outstanding astrophotography, at the National Maritime Museum from Wednesday 24 October. Winners and shortlisted entries will also be published in the competition’s official book, available on 24 October from bookstores and online. The awards ceremony can be followed live on Twitter #astrophoto2018.

Website: www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto
Twitter: @ROGAstronomers
Instagram: @royalmuseumsgreenwich
Facebook: Royal Museums Greenwich
Astrophotography Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/astrophotos

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

A Magnificent Saturn. © Avani Soares (Brazil)

In high resolution planetary photography having a good view of a planet is a key factor but also completely out of a photographer’s control. In this image the photographer was lucky to capture our second largest planet, Saturn, in all its glory. After stacking 4,000 out of 10,000 frames we can admire details such as the beautiful polar hexagon, the Encke Division and even the crepe ring.

Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 29 July 2017

Celestron C14HD Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, Powermate 2X + Filter Baader UV-IR cut Celestron CGE Pro mount, ZWO ASI 290 MC camera, 7820 mm f/22 lens, stacked from 4000 frames

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Andromeda galaxy. © Péter Feltóti (Hungary)

Andromeda Galaxy has always amazed the photographer. The dust lanes and bright star clusters in its arms, the emblematic galaxy shape of it, and the magnificent look of this great star city make it one of his most desired objects to photograph. This image was taken using a 200mm mirror and creating a three panel mosaic.

Mez?falva, Hungary, 20 October 2017

SkyWatcher 200/800 Newton astrograph telescope, SkyWatcher NEQ6 pro mount, Canon EOS 600D camera (modded), 800 mm f/4 lens, ISO 800, 3.79-second exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Aurorascape. © Mikkel Beiter (Denmark)

The conditions the night the image was taken were not ideal because of the bright moon lighting up the sky. The photographer managed to overcome this obstacle and capture the incredible Aurora Borealis above the fjord at Haukland in the gorgeous Lofoten archipelago, Northern Norway. The small pool of water with rocks made the perfect foreground and a natural leading line into the frame.

Haukland Beach, Norway, 26 February 2018

Canon EOS 5DS R camera, 17mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 2000, 8-second exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Cave Man. © Brandon Yoshizawa (USA)

Battling the light pollution in Malibu, California the photographer brilliantly framed our galaxy, the Milky Way, inside a sea cave, 25 miles away from the heart of downtown Los Angeles. In order to achieve this outstanding shot planning it ahead and waiting for the perfect conditions of low tide and clear skies was very important. The image required two exposures; one to capture the details of the dark cave and one for the Milky Way. Both exposures were taken back to back without moving the camera or changing the composition.

Malibu, USA, 28 March 2017

Nikon D750 camera, 14mm f/4 lens, ISO 1600, 119/1 exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Mosaic of the Great Orion & Running Man Nebula. © Miguel Angel García Borrella and Lluis Romero Ventura (Spain)

The Orion Nebula, also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976, is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye during a clear night sky. M42 is 1270 light years from our planet and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. It is estimated to be 24 light years across and it has a mass of about 2,000 times more than that of the Sun. This image is the result of the efforts of two astrophotographers using different equipment from their observatories. Located hundreds of kilometres away from each other, they chose the Orion Sword are as a common target to render.

The software suites used in this image are Maxim DL, Pixinsight and Photoshop CC 2017. Àger, Monfragüe, Spain, 2 January2017 Astrodon LRGB Gen2 I-Series True-Balance telescope, Astrodon LRGB Gen2 I-Series True-Balance, Titan 50 Losmandy & ASA DDM85 mount, SBIG & Moravian STL 11000 C2 & G3-11002 camera, 2720mm and 2840mm f/6.8 and f/8 lens, 42 hours exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula. © Mario Cogo (Italy)

The dark Namibian sky was the perfect location to capture the wonder of the Witch Head Nebula and Rigel. The Witch Head Nebula is a very faint molecular gas cloud which is illuminated by supergiant star Rigel, the seventh brightest star of the sky and the brightest star in the constellation of Orion.

Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, Namibia, 20 August 2017

Takahashi FSQ 106 ED telescope, Astro-Physics 1200 GTO mount, Canon EOS 6D Cooling CDS Mod camera, 385mm f/3.6 lens, ISO 1600, 1, 3 and 6 mins total 5 hours exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

The Eagle nebula. © Marcel Drechsler (Germany)

The Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16, is a young open cluster of stars, surrounded by hot hydrogen gas in the constellation Serpens and lies at a distance of 7,000 light years from Earth. Taken at the Baerenstein Observatory in Germany, the photo is a RGB-Ha-OIII image and shows off the radiant red and blue colours of the nebula. In the centre you can spot the famous Pillars of Creation.

Baerenstein, Germany, 9 August 2017

Celestron RASA telescope, Baader narrow band filters, Celestron CGEpro mount, ZWO Asi1600mmc camera, 620mm f/2.2 lens, ISO 139, 10.5 hours exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Thunderstorm under milky way. © Tianyuan Xiao (Australia)

A glorious Milky Way looms over a thunderstorm that lights up the Florida sky. The photographer wanted to show the great contrast between stable (Milky Way) and moving (thunderstorm) objects in the sky.

Perry, USA, 21 August 2017

Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera, 25mm f/3.2 lens, 30/1 exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Aurora Borealis on the coast of the Barents sea. © Michael Zav’yalov (Russia)

From the city of Yaroslavl in Russia to the coast of the Barents Sea in the Arctic Circle, a party of three travelled 2000 kilometers to capture the magnificent Northern Lights. The photographer stayed in the village of Teriberka in the Murmansk Oblast district for five days. After four days of bad weather, with heavy snow and thick clouds the sky finally cleared on the last day and the Northern Lights appeared in all their glory.

Murmansk/Teriberka, Russia, 28 February 2017

Nikon D750 camera, 20mm f/4 lens, ISO 2000, 30/1 exposure

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 shortlist revealed

24 Jul

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

AR 2665 and Quiescent Prominence. © ?ukasz Sujka (Poland)

The sunspot AR2665 was one of the most active regions in 2017 on the right you can see a phenomenal quiescent prominence extending from our star, the Sun. This type of prominence lasts for a very long time and its structure is quite stable. The photo is a composition of two images: one of the magnificent prominence and one of the Sun’s surface. The surface is much brighter than the prominence so it is a negative to reveal details of Sun chromosphere (spicules and filaments).

Budy Dlutowskie, Poland, 9 July 2017

TS Individual 102/1100 telescope, etalon from Lunt50ThaPT+B1200+BelOptik ERF+TV barlow x2, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro mount, ZWO ASI 178 MM-C camera, 1100mm f/11 lens, 10ms exposure

Some of the best pictures of stars, planets and deep space have been revealed in the shortlist of the 2018 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The annual contest is run by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich London, and is currently in its 10th year. Organizers say they received 4200 images from amateur, professional and young photographers in 91 countries.

Entrants compete across eight categories for the top prize of £10,000 (approx. $ 13,000) while the under 16s stand a chance of winning £1500. Shortlisted and winning entries form part of a book of the completion, and an exhibition is held at the National Maritime Museum, also in Greenwich, London.

The overall winner, and the winners of the Sir Patrick Moore prize for Best Newcomer and Robotic Scope Image of the Year, will be announced on 23rd October 2018.

For more information see the Royal Museum Greenwich website.

Press release

ROYAL OBSERVATORY GREENWICH’s “INSIGHT INVESTMENT ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2018” SHORTLISTED IMAGES TO THIS YEAR’S COMPETITION SELECTED

– WINNERS ANNOUNCED 23 OCTOBER 2018
– EXHIBITION OPENS 24 OCTOBER 2018

A mesmerising mosaic of the Great Orion and the Running Man Nebula, a magical scene of an Aurora Borealis exploding over the south coast of Iceland, a solar transit of the International Space Station between the massive sunspots AR 12674 and AR 12673; Royal Observatory’s Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 has received thousands of exceptional images once more. The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich sponsored by Insight Investment and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its tenth year and continues to go from strength to strength, receiving over 4,200 spectacular entries from enthusiastic amateurs and professional photographers, taken from 91 countries spanning the globe. This year has also seen a phenomenal increase in entries from our aspiring young astrophotographers.

Shortlisted images from this year’s entrants include a glorious Milky Way looming over a thunderstorm that lights up the sky, star trails sweeping over the extraordinary sacred altars in Inner Mongolia, a majestic image of deep space framed by the Breiðamerkurjökull, the glacial tongue that extends from the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull.

The range of subjects is not just limited to our planet. Photographers have also captured sights from across our Solar System, galaxy and the wider universe; from the second largest planet, Jupiter, which lies 746 million miles away from Earth when the two are closest and over a billion miles apart at their most distant; the striking and often overlooked Nebula NGC 2023, at 4 light years in diameter it is one of the largest reflection nebulae ever discovered; to the bright IC 342 also known as the ‘Hidden Galaxy’ that sits near the galactic equator, an obscure area with thick cosmic gas, bright stars and dark dust.

The competition’s judges include renowned comedian and keen amateur astronomer, Jon Culshaw; Editor of BBC Sky at Night Magazine Chris Bramley; the Royal Observatory’s Public Astronomer, Dr Marek Kukula and a host of experts from the worlds of art and astronomy. The winners of the competition’s nine categories and two special prizes will be announced on Tuesday 23 October at a special award ceremony at the National Maritime Museum. This year’s and previous winning images will be displayed in a commemorative exhibition that will celebrate 10 years of outstanding astrophotography, at the National Maritime Museum from Wednesday 24 October. Winners and shortlisted entries will also be published in the competition’s official book, available on 24 October from bookstores and online. The awards ceremony can be followed live on Twitter #astrophoto2018.

Website: www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto
Twitter: @ROGAstronomers
Instagram: @royalmuseumsgreenwich
Facebook: Royal Museums Greenwich
Astrophotography Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/astrophotos

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

A Magnificent Saturn. © Avani Soares (Brazil)

In high resolution planetary photography having a good view of a planet is a key factor but also completely out of a photographer’s control. In this image the photographer was lucky to capture our second largest planet, Saturn, in all its glory. After stacking 4,000 out of 10,000 frames we can admire details such as the beautiful polar hexagon, the Encke Division and even the crepe ring.

Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 29 July 2017

Celestron C14HD Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, Powermate 2X + Filter Baader UV-IR cut Celestron CGE Pro mount, ZWO ASI 290 MC camera, 7820 mm f/22 lens, stacked from 4000 frames

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Andromeda galaxy. © Péter Feltóti (Hungary)

Andromeda Galaxy has always amazed the photographer. The dust lanes and bright star clusters in its arms, the emblematic galaxy shape of it, and the magnificent look of this great star city make it one of his most desired objects to photograph. This image was taken using a 200mm mirror and creating a three panel mosaic.

Mez?falva, Hungary, 20 October 2017

SkyWatcher 200/800 Newton astrograph telescope, SkyWatcher NEQ6 pro mount, Canon EOS 600D camera (modded), 800 mm f/4 lens, ISO 800, 3.79-second exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Aurorascape. © Mikkel Beiter (Denmark)

The conditions the night the image was taken were not ideal because of the bright moon lighting up the sky. The photographer managed to overcome this obstacle and capture the incredible Aurora Borealis above the fjord at Haukland in the gorgeous Lofoten archipelago, Northern Norway. The small pool of water with rocks made the perfect foreground and a natural leading line into the frame.

Haukland Beach, Norway, 26 February 2018

Canon EOS 5DS R camera, 17mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 2000, 8-second exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Cave Man. © Brandon Yoshizawa (USA)

Battling the light pollution in Malibu, California the photographer brilliantly framed our galaxy, the Milky Way, inside a sea cave, 25 miles away from the heart of downtown Los Angeles. In order to achieve this outstanding shot planning it ahead and waiting for the perfect conditions of low tide and clear skies was very important. The image required two exposures; one to capture the details of the dark cave and one for the Milky Way. Both exposures were taken back to back without moving the camera or changing the composition.

Malibu, USA, 28 March 2017

Nikon D750 camera, 14mm f/4 lens, ISO 1600, 119/1 exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Mosaic of the Great Orion & Running Man Nebula. © Miguel Angel García Borrella and Lluis Romero Ventura (Spain)

The Orion Nebula, also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976, is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye during a clear night sky. M42 is 1270 light years from our planet and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. It is estimated to be 24 light years across and it has a mass of about 2,000 times more than that of the Sun. This image is the result of the efforts of two astrophotographers using different equipment from their observatories. Located hundreds of kilometres away from each other, they chose the Orion Sword are as a common target to render.

The software suites used in this image are Maxim DL, Pixinsight and Photoshop CC 2017. Àger, Monfragüe, Spain, 2 January2017 Astrodon LRGB Gen2 I-Series True-Balance telescope, Astrodon LRGB Gen2 I-Series True-Balance, Titan 50 Losmandy & ASA DDM85 mount, SBIG & Moravian STL 11000 C2 & G3-11002 camera, 2720mm and 2840mm f/6.8 and f/8 lens, 42 hours exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula. © Mario Cogo (Italy)

The dark Namibian sky was the perfect location to capture the wonder of the Witch Head Nebula and Rigel. The Witch Head Nebula is a very faint molecular gas cloud which is illuminated by supergiant star Rigel, the seventh brightest star of the sky and the brightest star in the constellation of Orion.

Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, Namibia, 20 August 2017

Takahashi FSQ 106 ED telescope, Astro-Physics 1200 GTO mount, Canon EOS 6D Cooling CDS Mod camera, 385mm f/3.6 lens, ISO 1600, 1, 3 and 6 mins total 5 hours exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

The Eagle nebula. © Marcel Drechsler (Germany)

The Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16, is a young open cluster of stars, surrounded by hot hydrogen gas in the constellation Serpens and lies at a distance of 7,000 light years from Earth. Taken at the Baerenstein Observatory in Germany, the photo is a RGB-Ha-OIII image and shows off the radiant red and blue colours of the nebula. In the centre you can spot the famous Pillars of Creation.

Baerenstein, Germany, 9 August 2017

Celestron RASA telescope, Baader narrow band filters, Celestron CGEpro mount, ZWO Asi1600mmc camera, 620mm f/2.2 lens, ISO 139, 10.5 hours exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Thunderstorm under milky way. © Tianyuan Xiao (Australia)

A glorious Milky Way looms over a thunderstorm that lights up the Florida sky. The photographer wanted to show the great contrast between stable (Milky Way) and moving (thunderstorm) objects in the sky.

Perry, USA, 21 August 2017

Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera, 25mm f/3.2 lens, 30/1 exposure

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 Shortlist

Aurora Borealis on the coast of the Barents sea. © Michael Zav’yalov (Russia)

From the city of Yaroslavl in Russia to the coast of the Barents Sea in the Arctic Circle, a party of three travelled 2000 kilometers to capture the magnificent Northern Lights. The photographer stayed in the village of Teriberka in the Murmansk Oblast district for five days. After four days of bad weather, with heavy snow and thick clouds the sky finally cleared on the last day and the Northern Lights appeared in all their glory.

Murmansk/Teriberka, Russia, 28 February 2017

Nikon D750 camera, 20mm f/4 lens, ISO 2000, 30/1 exposure

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Beautiful images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

30 Jul

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

A Battle We Are Losing © Haitong Yu (China)

The Milky Way rises ominously above a small radio telescope from a large array at Miyun Station, National Astronomical Observatory of China, in the suburbs of Beijing. The image depicts the ever-growing light pollution we now experience, which together with electromagnetic noise has turned many optical and radio observatories near cities both blind and deaf – a battle that inspired the photographer’s title of the shot. The image used a light pollution filter (iOptron L-Pro) and multiple frame stacking to get the most of the Milky Way out of the city light.

The Royal Museums Greenwich has announced the shortlist for its ninth annual Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Thousands of entries were received from over 90 countries; winners will be announced on September 14th.

Here are just a handful of the more than 130 images that made the shortlist – head to the Royal Museums Greenwich site to learn more about the competition.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

A Brief Rotation of Mount Olympus © Avani Soares (Brazil)

A series photos of Mars taken between 1 June and 3 July 2016 showing Mount Olympus in three different positions. Mount Olympus also known as Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in the Solar System. The features on the surface of Mars as seen from Earth change rapidly, as seen in the contrast between the central photo, made during the opposition (when Mars is at its closest to the Earth), and the photo on the left, taken 33 days later.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

An Icy Moonscape © Kris Williams (UK)

A lone stargazer sits atop the peak of Castell-Y-Gwynt (Castle of the Winds) on Glyder Fach Mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales, beneath a starry night sky during freezing temperatures in mid-winter. The lunar-like landscape was formed through a process called freeze-thaw weathering: water seeps into cracks in the rock, freezing and expanding as ice forms, eventually cracking the rock over hundreds and thousands of years.

Despite the full cloud and fog on the night the photographer set up his one-man tent in the snow and began the long wait of 15 hours of darkness in -10°C temperatures but the sky clearing for a mere 20 minutes, was all the time needed to capture this shot.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Aurora over Svea © Agurtxane Concellon (Spain)

The purples and greens of the Northern Lights radiate over the coal mining city of Svea, in the archipelago of Svalbard. The earthy landscape below the glittering sky is illuminated by the strong lights of industry at the pier of Svea.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Beautiful Trømso © Derek Burdeny (USA)

The aurora activity forecast was low for this evening, so the photographer remained in Tromsø rather than driving to the fjord. The unwitting photographer captured Nature’s answer to a stunning firework display as the Northern Lights dance above a rainbow cast in the waters of the harbour in Trømso made for a spectacular display, but did not realize what he had shot until six months later when reviewing his images.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Crescent Moon over the Needles © Ainsley Bennett (UK)

The 7% waxing crescent Moon setting in the evening sky over the Needles Lighthouse at the western tip of the Isle of Wight. Despite the Moon being a thin crescent, the rest of its shape is defined by sunlight reflecting back from the Earth’s surface.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Eastern Prominence © Paul Andrew (UK)

A large, searing hedgerow prominence extends from the surface of the Sun on 29 August 2016. There are a number of different prominence types that have been observed emanating from the Sun, and the hedgerow prominence is so called due the grouping of small prominences resembling rough and wild shrubbery.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Fall Milk © Brandon Yoshizawa (USA)

The snow-clad mountain in the Eastern Sierras towers over the rusty aspen grove aligned perfectly in front of it, whilst our galaxy the Milky Way glistens above.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Ghostly Sun © Michael Wilkinson (UK)

The Sun photographed in Calcium-K light, depicting the star’s inner chromosphere. In the colour-rendering scheme used, the surface is shown as negative, with the sunspots as bright spots, but the area outside the limb is shown with increased contrast, highlighting a surge on the western limb, and several small prominences. Although the Sun is shown entering a quieter phase, a lot of activity is still taking place, illustrating just how dynamic our star is.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Hustle and Peaceful © Prisca Law (Hong Kong)

Taken from The Peak, the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island, the image shows the hustle and bustle of the city in contrast to the peaceful starry sky. The haze above the beautiful landscape reminds us that light pollution prevents us from enjoying an even more stunning sky view. Along the coastline the sharp, vibrant light signifies the fast-paced life of cities that many of us have become accustomed to.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Ignite the Lights © Nicolas Alexander Otto (Germany)

After a long hike from his small cabin to Kvalvika, Lofoten Islands in Norway, the photographer arrived at the slopes above the beach around midnight. During the hike the auroral display was relatively weak, but when he made it to the beach the sky ignited in a colourful spectacle of greens and purples framed by the mossy, green landscape. The image is stacked from six different exposures to combat high ISO and thermal noise in the foreground. The sky was added from one of these exposures.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

ISS Daylight Transit © Dani Caxete (Spain)

The International Space Station (ISS) whizzes across the dusky face of the Earth’s natural satellite, the Moon, whilst photographed in broad daylight. Shining with a magnitude of -3.5, the ISS was illuminated by the Sun at a height of 9º on the horizon. Like the Moon, the ISS receives solar rays in a similar way during its 15 orbits of the Earth a day, making it possible to see it when the Sun is still up. This is a real shot, with no composite or clipping in the process.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Moon Rise Reflections © Joshua Wood (New Zealand)

An unexpected shot of the Moon rising over the glistening ocean off the Wairarapa coast, bearing a remarkable resemblance to the Sun. As the photographer was capturing the sunset over Castlepoint, he looked over his shoulder to see the Moon rising behind, reflecting off the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean, and it became the new subject of his image.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Mr Big Dipper © Nicholas Roemmelt (Denmark)

A stargazer observes the constellation of the Big Dipper perfectly aligned with the window of the entrance to a large glacier cave in Engadin, Switzerland. This is a panorama of two pictures, and each is a stack of another two pictures: one for the stars and another one for the foreground, but with no composing or time blending.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Near Earth Object 164121 (2003 YTI) © Derek Robson (UK)

On 31 October 2016, Near Earth Asteroid 164121 (2003 YT1) made a close encounter with Earth at 3 million miles. This Apollo asteroid with an orbital period of 427 days was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on 18 December 2003. The photographer’s first attempt at imaging the asteroid was done with a camera on a fixed tripod, controlled by Astrophotography Tool software.

The asteroid moved so fast I could see it moving on the live screen. The negative image is a stack of 56 cropped images created using PIPP and Deep Sky Stacker software and was processed with IrfanView and Photoshop for scientific content rather than cosmetic appearance.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

NGC 2023 © Warren Keller (USA)

Lying in the constellation of Orion, at a distance of 1467 light years from our planet is the emission and reflection nebula NGC 2023. Most often photographed next to the famous Horsehead Nebula, the photographer has instead given NGC 2023 the spotlight in order to try and bring out all of the wonderful detail seen across its diameter of 4 light years, making it one of the largest reflection nebulae ever discovered. Partner Steve Mazlin is the lead processor on this one for SSRO.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

NGC 7331 – The Deer Lick Group © Bernard Miller (USA)

NGC 7331 is an unbarred spiral galaxy found some 40 million light years away from Earth, in the constellation Pegasus. Of the group of galaxies known as the Deer Lick Group, NGC 7331 is the largest, and can be seen dominating the image whilst the smaller galaxies NGC 7335, NGC 7336, NGC 7337, NGC 7338 and NGC 7340 drift above it.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Orion’s Gaseous Nebula © Sebastien Grech (UK)

Lying 1,300 light years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is found in Orion’s Sword in the famous constellation named after the blade’s owner. The Orion Nebula is one of the most photographed and studied objects in the night sky due to the intense activity within the stellar nursery that sees thousands of new stars being created, which also makes it a relatively easy target for beginners. The nebula is thought to measure about 24 light years across and have a mass 2000 times that of our Sun.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Reflection © Beate Behnke (Germany)

The reflection in the wave ripples of Skagsanden beach mirrors the brilliant green whirls of the Aurora Borealis in the night sky overhead. To obtain the effect of the shiny surface, the photographer had to stand in the wave zone of the incoming flood, and only when the water receded very low did the opportunity to capture the beautiful scene occur.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Scintillating Sirius © Steve Brown (UK)

The seemingly pop art inspired canvas of the rainbow of colours exhibited by the brightest star in our sky, Sirius. These colours are obvious to the naked eye and more so through the eyepiece of a telescope, but are difficult to capture in an image. To do this the photographer had to somehow ‘freeze’ each colour as it happened by taking a series of videos at different levels of focus and then extracted the frames from each video to make up this composite image.

By capturing the star out of focus, the light from Sirius was spread out over a larger area, which resulted in the colours it displayed being more obvious. The image is made up of 782 different frames at different levels of focus. There is a single frame of a focused Sirius in the centre of the image.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Sh2-249 Jellyfish Nebula © Chris Heapy (UK)

Lying in the constellation of Gemini, IC443 is a galactic supernova remnant, a star that could have exploded as many as 30,000 years ago. Its globular appearance has earned the celestial structure the moniker of the Jellyfish Nebula. Pictured to the upper left of the Jellyfish Nebula is a much fainter background area of nebulosity, which is actually a large cloud of mostly molecular hydrogen gas and dust.. ‘The Jellyfish’ is a convoluted tangle of gaseous filaments rapidly expanding away from the initial explosion.

Professional observatory data shows that what we are actually seeing are two lobes superimposed on each other, but from this angle one appears as the head of the jellyfish (to the left) and the other lobe (to the right) as the dangling tentacles. It is illuminated by a few young blue embedded stars and criss-crossed by tendrils of dark dust clouds lying between us and the bright nebula.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Shooting Star and Jupiter © Rob Bowes (UK)

A shooting star flashes across the sky over the craggy landscape of Portland, Dorset, as the planet Jupiter looks on. The image is of two stacked exposures: one for the sky and one for the rocks.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Solar Trails above the Telescope © Maciej Zapior (Poland)

Taken with a solargraphy pinhole camera, the image charts the movement of the Sun over the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague with an exposure of half a year (21 December 2015–21 June 2016). As a photosensitive material, regular black-and-white photographic paper without developing was used, and after exposure the negative was scanned and post-processed using a graphic program (colour and contrast enhancement).

The exposure time was from solstice to solstice, thus recording the solar trails above the telescope dome and the rainbow of colours of the trails are the result of the sensitivity of the paper changing as it is exposed to different temperatures and humidity.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Star Track in Kawakarpo © Zhong Wu (China)

The stars beam down on to the Meili Snow Mountains, also known as the Prince Snow Mountains – the highest peaks in the Yunnan Province, China. It is world-renowned for its beauty and is one of the most sacred mountains in Tibetan Buddhism. The moonlight striking the top of the mountains appears to give them an ethereal quality.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Starburst Galaxy M82 © Bernard Miller (USA)

The starburst galaxy M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy, gleams five times brighter than our galaxy lies some 12 million light years away from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major. In a show of radiant oranges and reds, the superwind bursts out from the galaxy, believed to be the closest place to our planet in which the conditions are similar to that of the early Universe, where a plethora of stars are forming.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Super Moon © Giorgia Hofer (Italy)

The magnificent sight of the Super Moon illuminating the night sky as it sets behind the Marmarole, in the heart of the Dolomites in Italy. On the night of 14 November 2016, the Moon was at perigee at 356.511 km away from the centre of Earth, the closest occurrence since 1948. It will not be closer again until 2034. On this night, the Moon was 30% brighter and 14% bigger than other full moons.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

The Blue Hour © Tommy Eliassen (Norway)

The setting crescent Moon and Mars gaze over Saltfjellet, Norway as the Northern Lights appear to emanate from the snowy landsape. The Aurora Borealis were an unexpected guest in the shot as the Sun was only about ten degrees under the horizon meaning the early display came as a surprise.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

The Lost Hour © Andrew Whyte (UK)

The radiant, concentric star trails seemingly spinning over a lone stargazer against the glowing purples and pinks of the night sky during the hour when the clocks ‘spring forward’ to begin British Summer Time. With time so intrinsically linked to celestial activity, a one-hour star trail seemed the perfect metaphor. Through the use of long exposures, the trails depict the rotation of the Earth on its axis centring on the north celestial pole, the sky moving anti-clockwise around this point.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

The Road Back Home © Ruslan Merzlyakov (Latvia)

Noctilucent clouds stretch across the Swedish sky illuminating a motorcyclist’s ride home in this dramatic display. Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere and form above 200,000 ft. Thought to be formed of ice crystals, the clouds occasionally become visible at twilight when the Sun is below the horizon and illuminates them.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

Winter Ice Giant Uranus © Martin Lewis (UK)

The distant ice giant Uranus, the seventh furthest planet from the Sun, some 2.6 billion kilometres (at its closest) away from our own planet is entered into the competition for the first time. Found in the constellation of Pisces, here it can be seen surrounded by its five brightest moons: Ariel, Miranda, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.

Taken on an exceptionally still night in late December, an infrared filter was used to further improve the viewing and to bring out the planet’s belt and cloud details. As the planet lies so far away and appears so dim to us on Earth, Uranus seems to be tiny at 3.7-arcseconds across.

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Get your pictures in front a NASA photo editor by entering Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017

24 Feb
Serene Saturn Winner Planets, Comets & Asteroids 2016 © Damian Peach (UK)

The Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 competition is set to open next week offering space photographers the chance to have their work judged by a picture editor from NASA as well as to win the top prize of £10,000. The competition is open to professional and amateur photographers who can choose from nine categories in which to enter their images. Entry is free but restricted to ten images in total all of which need to have been taken since January 1st 2016.

The winner of each category will receive a £1500 prize while those in runner-up positions get £500 and Commended images win £250. There are an additional two special awards for The Sir Patrick Moore Award Best Newcomer and for Robotic Scope Image of the Year – both of which earn the photographer £750.

Joining the judging panel this year is photographer Rebecca Roth, the Image Coordinator and Social Media Specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. She will judge alongside a collection of astronomers and astro-photographers as well as presenters from the BBC Sky at Night TV program. Photographer Wolfgang Tillmans is also on the judging panel.

The competition is open for entries from Monday February 27th and closes on Friday April 7th. It is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in the UK along with the BBC’s Sky at Night magazine. The Royal Observatory is a charitable organization and has some terms regarding additional uses beyond the realms of the competition that entrants should acquaint themselves with before submitting their work.

For more information see the Royal Museums Greenwich website and the terms and conditions page.

Press release

INSIGHT ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2017 ANNOUNCES COMPETITION DATES AND WELCOMES REBECCA ROTH OF NASA TO THE JUDGING PANEL

The Royal Observatory Greenwich, in association with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine, announces the dates for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 competition – its annual global search for the most beautiful and spectacular visions of the cosmos, whether they are striking pictures of vast galaxies millions of light years away, or dramatic images of the night sky much closer to home.

Now in its ninth year, the hugely popular competition will open to entrants on Monday 27 February giving them a chance of taking home the grand prize of £10,000. Entrants will have until Friday 7 April to enter up to ten images into the various categories of the competition via www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto.

The competition also welcomes Rebecca Roth of NASA to the judging panel. Based in Washington D.C. Rebecca is a photographer, photo editor and social media specialist, currently working as the Image Coordinator and Social Media Specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Rebecca has worked at NASA for nearly 8 years and is charged with sharing amazing images of our universe with the media and with the public through channels such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Prior to working at NASA, Rebecca worked as a photojournalist and photo editor for outlets including National Geographic Television & Film, Roll Call Newspaper, and USA Weekend Magazine. Of her latest role as a judge for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017, Rebecca has said, “At NASA Goddard, we build spacecraft and instruments, and invent new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe – a favorite part of my job is sharing images of these spacecraft and the images they produce with the public. This will be an exciting and unique opportunity to see the spectacular images of space captured by the public themselves and discovering their photographic interpretations of the night sky and beyond.”

Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 has nine main categories:

– Skyscapes: Landscape and cityscape images of twilight and the night sky featuring the Milky Way, star trails, meteor showers, comets, conjunctions, constellation rises, halos and noctilucent clouds alongside elements of earthly scenery.

– Aurorae: Photographs featuring auroral activity.

– People and Space: Photographs of the night sky including people or a human interest element.

– Our Sun: Solar images including solar eclipses and transits.

– Our Moon: Lunar images including lunar eclipses and occultation of planets.

– Planets, Comets and Asteroids: Everything else in our solar system, including planets and their satellites, comets, asteroids and other forms of zodiacal debris.

– Stars and Nebulae: Deep space objects within the Milky Way galaxy, including stars, star clusters, supernova remnants, nebulae and other intergalactic phenomena.

– Galaxies: Deep space objects beyond the Milky Way galaxy, including galaxies, galaxy clusters, and stellar associations.

– Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Pictures taken by budding astronomers under the age of 16 years old.

There are also two special prizes: The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer is awarded to the best photo by an amateur astrophotographer who has taken up the hobby in the last year and who has not entered an image into the competition before, and Robotic Scope, acknowledges the best photo taken using one of the increasing number of computer-controlled telescopes at prime observing sites around the world which can be accessed over the internet by members of the public.

Entries to the competition must be submitted by 7 April 2017, and the winning images will be showcased in the annual free exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich from 14 September 2017.

Photographers can enter online by visiting www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto and each entrant may submit up to ten images to the competition.

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Dazzling images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

30 Jul

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

Flash Point © Brad Goldpaint (USA)

The Perseid Meteor Shower shoots across the sky in the early hours of August 13, 2015, appearing to cascade from Mount Shasta in California, USA. The composite image features roughly 65 meteors captured by the photographer between 12:30am and 4:30am.

The Royal Museums Greenwich has announced the shortlist for its eighth annual Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. More than 4500 entries were received from over 80 countries; winners will be announced on September 15, with winning images going into a free exhibition at the Royal Observatory. One overall winner will walk away with £10,000, and runners-up will take home £500 each. 

Here are just a handful of the more than 130 images that made the shortlist – head to the Royal Museums Greenwich site to learn more about the competition.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

Seven Magic Points © Rune Engebø (Norway)

The rusty red swirls of the circular, iron sculpture Seven Magic Points in Brattebergan, Norway mirror the rippling aurora above.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

Frozen Giant © Nicholas Roemmelt (Germany)

The celestial curve of the Milky Way joins with the light of a stargazer’s headlamp to form a monumental arch over the Cimon della Pella in the heart of the Dolomites mountain range in northeastern Italy.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

M8: Lagoon Nebula © Ivan Eder (Hungary)

New stars are formed in the undulating clouds of M8, also commonly referred to as the Lagoon Nebula, situated some 5,000 light years from our planet.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

Parallel Mountains © Sean Goebel (USA)

The shadow of Manua Kea, the highest peak in the state of Hawaii, is projected by the rising sun over the volcano, Hualalai, whilst the Full Moon soars above them, higher again.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

Northern Lights over Jokulsarlon, Iceland © Giles Rocholl (UK)

A couple takes in the awe-inspiring sight of the Northern Lights streaking across the night sky over the lagoon at Jokulsarlon, Iceland on Valentine’s night of 2016.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

Just Missed the Bullseye © Scott Carnie-Bronca (Australia)

The International Space Station (ISS) appears to pierce a path across the radiant, concentric star trails seemingly spinning over the silhouettes of the trees in Harrogate, South Australia.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

Painted Hills © Nicholas Roemmelt (Germany)

With very little light pollution, the glimmering stars of the Milky Way bathe the colourful layers of the Painted Hills of Oregon in a natural glow.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist

Antarctic Space Station © Richard Inman (UK)

A view of the Halley 6 Research Station situated on the Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica, which is believed to be the closest thing you can get to living in space without leaving Earth, making it perfect to be used for research by the European Space Agency. As the Sun’s light dissipates into the horizon, the aurora can be seen swirling overhead.

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Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 winners announced

26 Sep

The Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the winners of 2014’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year award, after a record number of entries from around the globe. UK astronomer James Woodend won the Overall prize, as well as the Earth and Space category, with his image ‘Aurora Over a Glacier Lagoon’. See gallery

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Enter the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition

23 Feb

Guiding_Light_to_the_Stars_Mark_Gee-WINNER_AND_OVERALL_WINNER_.jpg

Think you have a striking picture of vast galaxies millions of light years away, or a dramatic night sky scene taken much closer to home? The Royal Observatory Greenwich, in association with Sky at Night Magazine, has launched its 2014 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Entries must be submitted by April 24. Learn more

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