This year’s best astrophotography
EACH YEAR, world-renowned astrophotographer, Dr David Malin judges the entries from the Central West Astronomical Society’s annual astrophotography competition, and each year, the competition doesn’t disappoint.
Above are thw inning images and the following videos took out the ‘animation’ awards:
Winner: Belinda Wickens
Animation – Aesthetic
“Koo Wah Hun Na Heyo ñ Inuvik Aurora”
Comment: The title is a song to honour the local Inuvialuit peoples of the Arctic Circle, while the video captures a beautifully varied aurora in a wild and wonderful setting. The music is well chosen and there’s an interesting northern winter sky above. Orion rises over the horizon towards the end, with perfect timing.
Celestron – Astro Fi 90mm Refractor Telescope
The Astro Fi 90 is a computerized alt-azimuth refractor telescope perfect for terrestrial and celestial viewing on the go. The Astro Fi offers dazzling views of craters on the Moon, the rings of Saturn, the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, the Orion Nebula, the Hercules Globular Cluster and so much more at night. In addition, the star diagonal provides right side up viewing for using as a spotting sc…
Winner: Greg Priestley
Animation – Scientific
Comment: An interesting time-lapse with frames selected from 372 nights of imaging, organised by local sidereal time. It runs for 20 seconds and the most obvious features are the 1000 or so meteors, but it also reveals the dramatically varying colour, brightness and seeing conditions over a year.
After the COVID-19 restrictions are eased, a permanent exhibition will be on show at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory’s Visitor’s Centre from September. A second touring exhibition, organised by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, will travel to selected venues, beginning with Sydney Observatory.
You can observe the runner-up photos here.
