2023 overall winner: Rising Together
‘ ... The radiant core of the Milky Way completes this exquisite nightscape.’ Jong Lee captures the moon rising over sea level under the dazzling milky way, as seen from Tomaree Mountain lookout in Shoal Bay, New South Wales.
Photograph: Jong Lee/David Malin awards
Junior winner: Rosette Nebula SHO
The Rosette Nebula, a cosmic cloud of dust and gas located in the constellation Monoceros, is apparently very easy to photograph and capture some detail. However to go any further, you need lots of exposure time. Taken over three nights, it took 7.5 hours for this junior winner to get the shot.
Photograph: Lachlan Wilson/David Malin awards
Wide-field winner: The Southern Crown
It is also known as the Corona Australis molecular cloud: a star-forming region containing protostars. At a distance of 430 light years away, it is one of the closest star-forming regions to our solar system, stretching more than 8 degrees across the sky. An impressive scene to capture.
Photograph: Jarrod Koh/David Malin awards
Solar system winner: Vallis Rheita
The valley on the moon, Vallis Rheita, runs diagonally in the centre of this image, and above it is the crater Rheita. ‘The details in shadow line, mountain peak and craters within the 71-kilometre wide Rheita crater, is reminiscent of Apollo orbiter images.’
Photograph: Niall MacNeill/David Malin awards
Smartphone winner: Aurora over SW Tasmania
Even a decade ago, serious photography on mobile phones was an absurdity, let alone something which would eventually evolve to capturing bright, clear, and colourful images of the aurora over Tasmania’s mountain scenery with relative ease.
Photograph: Benjamin Alldridge/David Malin awards
Deep sky winner: The Dark Doodad and Surrounds
Snaking past the globular cluster known as NGC 4372 is the officially unnamed Dark Doodad Nebula in the constellation of Musca. NGC 4372 partially obscured by the Doodad dust trail lies 18.9 light years from us.
Photograph: Geoff Healey/David Malin awards
Stereoscopic Jupiter
This pair of Jupiter images was captured 13 minutes apart. The chronological order of the two images has been reversed to produce a direct viewing stereoscopic image. In the 13 minutes interval the planet has rotated about 7.8 degrees, which should produce the illusion of the planet being about half a meter in front of the viewer when seen through a stereoscopic viewer.
Photograph: Stefan Buda/David Malin awards
Milky Way Treasures
This image shows a very rich portion of the sky containing dark, reflection and emission nebulae amongst a sea of stars that surround the core of our Milky Way galaxy. It was taken using 2500 individual exposures in 100 panels stitched together to form a mosaic leading to a final resolution close to 1000 megapixels.
Photograph: Troy Casswell/David Malin awards
Dual Space Stations Transit the Sun
The Tiangong Space Station (TSS) transits the sun in the morning, and International Space Station transits (ISS) in the afternoon above the same location, on the same day. The same 1200mm lens has been used to take both space stations’ solar transit.
Photograph: Lucy Yunxi Hu/David Malin awards
The Colours of Scorpius
The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex and the blue Horsehead are both around 400 light years away in the constellations of Ophiuchus and Scorpius. They are well known for their vibrant range of colours.
Photograph: Guy Walpole/David Malin awards
Cape Byron Lighthouse Moonrise
Taken through a high-powered telescope from a distance of 5.1 km away makes the moon appear extraordinarily large in this photo. The shooting location had to be accurate to within a couple of meters.
Photograph: Kelvin Hennessy/David Malin awards
Ethereal Skogafoss
‘I always dreamed of seeing the northern lights over one of the most iconic waterfalls in Iceland and after four failed attempts on the same trip on one of the last few days I bagged my image.’
Photograph: Jarrod Andrews/David Malin awards
IC 2944 The Running Chicken Nebula
Just over 20 hours of exposures was used on the Running Chicken Nebula with a 107mm APO refractor and a 1600mm pro camera. Steeve Body said he spent a long time on the luminance layer of this image, blending carefully all the details to provide depth and an accurate structural render of this nebula.
Photograph: Steeve Body/David Malin awards
NGC 253 Sculptor Galaxy
The Sculptor galaxy is one of the most beautiful galaxies in the night sky. A number of local Brisbane astrophotographers banded together to see what acquisition quality could be achieved from suburban backyards.
Photograph: Christian Gow/David Malin awards
Dark Clouds of Chameleon
‘This is part of the large Chameleon molecular cloud complex, located 500 to 600 lightyears away. The dense interstellar dust clouds do not emit light, instead, they are in the foreground, and block the light from the stars behind. This image includes the galaxy in the top right, IC 3104, an irregular galaxy 7.3 million lightyears away!’
Photograph: Stefan Nebl/David Malin awards
English (US)