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The Royal Observatory Greenwich has revealed the winners of Astright Investment magazine's prestigious 2019 Photographer's Contest in Astronomy and, as always, the winning images are spectacular.
This year, the contest received more than 4,600 entries in 90 countries worldwide. The judges had the unenviable task of identifying a winner, a finalist and a highly recommended picture for each category, a winner for the Robotic Scope category and a winner for the new Sir Patrick Moore Award in the Best Newcomer category (they ended up selecting two). ). From there, they had to pick a single image, one of the category winners, to win the title of Photographer of the Year in Astronomy and £ 10,000 ($ 12,500) in prize money. .
This year, the overall prize was awarded to the winner of the category Our Moon, the Hungarian photographer László Francsics, who combined 32 multiple exhibitions in this superb plan of the total lunar eclipse on Budapest, Hungary on the 21st January:
Description provided by the Royal Observatory of Greenwich:
The phases were so close together that they blended perfectly into a continuous image capturing the shadow of the Earth. On the edge of the shadow appears a rare blue hue, the shadow of the Earth's ozone layer. The sequences were taken with 3 minute intervals using a preprogrammed shutter remote. They were stacked on top of each other using stars in the background as a guide so that the photographer could reveal the true orbit of the moon.
Scroll through the list to see the rest of the category winners, then visit the astronomy photographer's website for more information on each of the stunning photographs below:
Young photographer of astronomy of the year
Once the photographer decided to capture an image of the deep sky, he began searching nebulae online and stumbled upon the beautiful Rosette nebula. With the help of his father, he built the material and together, for three nights in November, captured images of the Rosette nebula with the help of different filters. To get acquainted with the treatment of the images, the young photographer practiced one of his father's oldest photographs and then treated the raw data of this image himself.
Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, South Holland, Netherlands, February 26, 2019
Aurorae Winner
The photographer went into the snow at the top of the Offersøykammen mountain in Norway, to observe and capture a breathtaking giant aurora over the Lofoten Islands. He waited several hours and, after midnight, the lights of the North finally appeared. The photographer photographed this as a panorama to present the aurora vaulted above the mountains.
Lofoten, Norway, March 9, 2018
Winning Galaxies
This is a deep picture of the particular elliptical galaxy NGC 3923. The galaxy has a myriad of concentric shells resulting from past fusions with other nearby galaxies. Recent research has documented 42 concentric shells in NGC 3923, more than in any other known galaxy. A stream of stars extends down to the right and abruptly ends with a shell-shaped fragment. Inside the creek is a small round galaxy considered to be one of the precursors of the shell system. In the process of retreating to the center of NGC 3923, he shows a comet-shaped star tail that extends behind him. Disseminated in the field of vision, far in the background, many other galaxies. Some are even visible through the diffuse glow of NGC 3923. Many are billions of light years away.
Auckland, New Zealand, May 21, 2017-25 Mar 2018
Our winner of the sun
A close-up of the solar branch with what looks like fireworks in the solar cycle minimum solar cycle. A group of protuberances stand out against the background of space. The tonality has been inverted to express the depth and contrast of the characteristics of the Sun's chromosphere. The data, captured with a monochrome camera (black and white), were colorized.
Buffalo, New York, United States of America, July 29, 2018
Winner of the people and the space
The image depicts the photographer and his dog, Floyd, surrounded by Mars, Saturn and the galactic core of the Milky Way galaxy. This photo summarizes the photographer's love for the cosmos. As a constant companion, the photographer often tries (and fails) to capture his dogs at night. With this picture, the shutter speed was reduced to 10 seconds to allow Floyd to stay still. To counter this, the ISO was increased and the photographer whispered, "Do not move, do not move, do not move" to Floyd for 10 seconds. The shot was repeated several times to capture a clear silhouette in one exposure. The picture contains everything the photographer likes about photography; the relationship with the landscape, family, dogs and friends.
Hadrian's Wall, Hexham, United Kingdom, August 9, 2018
Winner of the Planets, Comets and Astroids
It is a sequence of images through the perihelic opposition of Mars in 2018 that tracks the progress of the great global dust storm, which has proven to be detrimental to the rover Opportunity Mars, which has exceeded its expected life of 14 years. The first image (May 26) precedes the storm, with clouds over the volcanoes in the Martian spring. The storm quickly shifted from regional coverage to global coverage from June 6 to 11 (second and third images), obscuring Opportunity, and only Tharsis volcanoes were visible on July 3. After a close opposition in July, with features such as Syrtis Major barely perceptible across the dust, the usual darker albedo features came back when Mars disappeared in the distance, while the southern polar cap shrank into been Martian.
Sydney, Australia, May 26 to October 30, 2018
Winner of Robotic Scope
With this image, the photographer decided to take up the challenge of revealing the very close infrared colors of Saturn, combining the red filters and two other infrared planetary filters, the IR 685 and IR 742, respectively. These are usually taken with the help of special infrared planetary filters, to reduce the effect of disturbance of the atmosphere, and RGB filters, to show the visual appearance of the planet. This choice of filters allowed the photographer to push back a little further the limits of amateur astrophotography. In doing so, he was able to shift the spectral range of the colored image from 0.4 microns (620-1150 nm) to the infrared.
Chilescope, Atacama region, Chile, August 26, 2018
Winning Skyscapes
This mystical image of withered poplars was taken in the Mongolian region of Ejina, in the historical kingdom of Xi Xia. The resistance of poplars to erosion has led to the extraordinary formation of a desolate landscape and, when a meteor falls, their forms resemble ancient creatures located in an uninhabited desert.
Ejina, Inner Mongolia, China, August 12, 2018
Winner stars and nebulae
These are two complexes of nebulae far apart from each other. The one on the right, NGC 3576, is closer to the Earth and its shape provides the title of this image. Both are active stellar nurseries, illuminated and shaped by the radiation of energetic young stars, displaying a spectacular array of structures and colors. Acquired with narrow-band filters, the colors of the composite image conform to the standard of the three colors of the Hubble palette.
General Pacheco, Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 24, 2018
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The photographer wanted to capture this image since the beginning of astrophotography in September 2018. This band of the Orion constellation includes some of the best targets in the Northern Hemisphere. According to the photographer, the picture shows what it is possible to do with a fairly average DSLR camera and lens, which is a source of inspiration for those who already possess a photographic kit. and want to get started. The image is a mosaic of two panes of 200 mm. Both panels were stacked in PixInsight and have the same basic processing upstream of gradient removal and color calibration. The two images were then transferred and assembled in Photoshop with additional work to reduce noise, bring out the dust and control the size and color of the stars.
Embleton, Northumberland, United Kingdom, January 30, 2019
The moon shone brightly over the sand dunes of north-central China, when the photographer decided to capture this image with a friend. After enjoying the sunset and the rise of the moon, they began taking pictures of the beautiful starry sky.
Ningxia, China, July 25, 2018
The winning images, the finalists and the highly recommended images will be presented alongside a selection of 68 pre-selected images as part of a special exhibition of the photographer of the year in astronomy presented at the National Maritime Museum. , which is now open to the public.
Congratulations to all the extremely talented praised photographers.
Credits: All photos are courtesy of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
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