Winning Sky Photos Art Exhibition Catalogue

Winning sky photos THE DAVID MALIN AWARDS 2011 Winning sky photos is the exhibition of the top entries from the David Malin Awards astrophotography competition held annually by the Central West Astronomical Society and open to photographers around Australia. The photographs are judged by world renowned astrophotographer Dr David Malin.

The competition aims to encourage photographers to use their vision, imagination and skill to produce inspiring and beautiful images of the sky. There are six entry categories: deep sky; wide-field; solar system: high-res (field of view less than one moon-width); solar system: wide-field (field of view greater than one moon-width); animated sequences; and junior (16 years and under). This year’s open theme was ‘Australia Beneath the Stars’.

Inside Barnard’s Loop

by Greg Bradley Great detail can be seen on this image: the glowing red gas in the lower half is part of Barnard’s Loop, the three bright stars in the top half form Orion’s belt and the Horsehead nebula is near the lowest of the belt stars.

Shield of the Centaur

by Marcus Davies Parramatta Observatory astronomer John Dunlop discovered this galaxy in 1826. In the following century CSIRO astronomers found that this galaxy is one of the strongest emitters of radio waves in the sky.

The Small Magellanic Cloud

by Greg Bradley At a distance of about 200 000 light years, this is one of the nearest galaxies to our galaxy, the Milky Way. The bright object on the top left of the photo is the globular cluster 47 Tucanae.

Moonlit Red Gums

by Wayne England Trees and a lake are lit by the Moon with the still water beautifully reflecting the stars above. The moonlit sky is blue, like the daytime sky, as blue light is scattered more than other colours.

The Dish

by Alex Cherney A view of the brightly lit Parkes Radio Telescope together with a panorama of the Milky Way. Australian astronomers are celebrating the 50th birthday of the radio telescope in 2011.

The Circinus Galaxy — ESO97-G13

by Steve Crouch As shown by the photo, we see this galaxy through a dense part of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It is not surprising that astronomers first noticed it only a few decades ago.

Dragon Storm

by Paul Haese A gigantic storm began on Saturn in December 2010.

First it was just in one area but within a few months it spread right around the planet’s northern hemisphere.

The Return of the South Equatorial Band

by Paul Haese Normally the planet Jupiter sports two dark bands across its middle. Throughout 2010 the southern belt was missing, but recent storms, seen as white spots in the region of the belt, signal its revival.

Hockey Stick

by Phil Hart Huge numbers of stars can be seen looking towards the centre of the Milky Way. The dark patches at the centre of this image are dark clouds of dust in the foreground blocking our view.

Capillary Conjunction

by Humayun Qureshi Groupings of four naked-eye planets are very rare. Here the bright object is Venus, with Jupiter below. Mars can just be made out in the twilight sky and Mercury is to the right of Venus.

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae

by Phil Hart ‘I especially liked the way the picture hits you in the eye by being bright where it needs to be bright and at the same time shows excellent shadow detail.’

– David Malin

The Eta Carinae Nebula

by Humayun Qureshi This image shows gas, which has been excited to shine by energetic starlight, and dark clouds of dust blocking our view. Near the centre is the massive star Eta Carinae.

The Southern Milky Way

by Gary Hill ‘The wide and very detailed view of the Southern Milky Way is very beautiful, with delicate colours where appropriate and multitudes of very tiny stars.’

– David Malin Total Solar Eclipse — 11 July 2010

by Robert Kaufman One of the best moments in a total eclipse of the Sun is the ‘diamond ring’. Just as the Moon moves in front of the Sun, a final brief flash of sunlight is seen through the Moon’s uneven edge.

Abstract Art? — IC 4603/4604

by Max Kilmister Our daytime sky is blue because blue light is scattered more than red light. In the same way the blue haze in this image is created by starlight scattered by clouds of dust.

Lunar Eclipse — 16/6/11

by Lara O’Brien The Moon becomes red during a total eclipse as some light is scattered and bent by the Earth’s atmosphere onto the Moon.

Blue light is scattered in all directions and what remains is red.

Scorpion Beach

by Humayun Qureshi A beach and stars photographed on a moonlit night. Although our eyes are not sensitive enough to tell the colour of the sky lit by the Moon, photographs reveal that it is blue just as in daytime.

Partial Eclipse Moonrise

by Geoff Sims A sequence of images showing the Moon gradually moving out of the Earth’s shadow. The curve in the shadow is evident as it was to the ancient Greeks who used it to demonstrate that the Earth is a sphere.

Time is of the Essence

by Christopher Thomas An incredible shot of a Qantas Dash 8 Q 400 twin-propeller passenger plane passing in front of the Moon. Patience, skill, luck and great reflexes must have all been involved.

Colourful Moon

by Eddie Trimarchi In this unusual view of the Moon, stretching of the colours allows subtle colour differences to be seen. These differences are real and are related to the chemical composition of the surface.

Dreamtime Eclipse

by Peter Ward The Milky Way is seen behind one of Australia’s best known landmarks, the sandstone formation of Uluru. The many dark lanes in the Milky Way are dark clouds, which block our view of the stars behind.

Curves

by Geoffrey Wyatt ‘A very strong composition that combines several curved elements, including the rim and terminator of the Moon, and yet remains unmistakably Australian.’ – David Malin

ISS Transit

by Peter Ward A suitable location has to be carefully chosen so that the International Space Station appears to cross in front of the Sun. The timing must also be just right as it crosses in less than a second.

Outback Reflections by Alex Cherney Spinning Tree by Phil Hart Lake Eppalock Timelapse by Phil Hart Running time: 2.53 mins

Animated sequences

May Seventh Sun

by Peter Ward At the edge of the Sun we can see a number of prominences, heated gas trapped inside magnetic fields.

The many dark lines are also prominences, but seen against the bright disc of the Sun.

Competition winners Curves by Geoffrey Wyatt — Winner — Open theme category & Overall Winner The Southern Milky Way by Gary Hill — Winner — Wide-field category The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae by Phil Hart — Winner — Wide field category May Seventh Sun by Peter Ward — Winner — Solar system: High-res category Time is of the Essence by Christopher Thomas — Winner — Solar System: Wide-field category Lunar Eclipse — 16/6/11 by Lara O’Brien — Encouragement Award — Junior category All other images on display received Honourable Mentions

The support of Canon Australia and the CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility is acknowledged.

The tour of the exhibition is organised by Sydney Observatory. Sydney Observatory is part of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ASTRONOMY AT SYDNEY OBSERVATORY Photography and astronomy have a long association at Sydney Observatory. Henry Chamberlain Russell, former government astronomer and director of the Observatory, began photographing the sky in the early 1870s. At the Observatory you can see the photographic plates he used to photograph the transit of Venus in 1874 and his images of the night sky. Sydney Observatory also participated in the Astrographic chart (Carte du Ciel) and catalogue, a project launched in Paris in 1887 aiming to photograph every section of the sky seen from Earth. The Observatory had the largest segment of the sky to complete among the 20 observatories participating. By 1890 astronomers from Sydney Observatory and its outpost observatory at Red Hill (now Pennant Hills) had begun taking images that eventually numbered more than 20,000 plates, revealing details that previously had not been evident through a telescope or with the naked eye. Today the tradition of astrophotography continues through the work of our own astronomers and the annual David Malin awards exhibition.

CENTRAL WEST ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY The Central West of NSW is a vast area with little light pollution and a dark sky. The region hosts major professional observatories, both optical and radio, as well as numerous private observatories. The Central West Astronomical Society (CWAS) began operating in 2002 to cater for interested people in the region. It holds monthly meetings and separate observing evenings each month. One of its major activities is the annual CWAS AstroFest held at the Parkes Observatory in July each year. An important aspect of the AstroFest is the announcement of the winners of each year’s David Malin Awards, which are organised by the society.

For more information about the David Malin Awards visit http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/ astrofest/DMA. There are special categories for 18 years and under.

DR DAVID MALIN Dr Malin is well known in Australia and internationally as an astrophotographer, astronomy writer and lecturer. From 1975 to 2001 he worked at the Anglo-Australian Observatory taking photographs of the sky with the country’s largest optical telescope, the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring near Coonabarabran in NSW. He developed a number of novel techniques to enhance the images on the photographic plates that he was using. The technique that is most associated with him is the production of striking astronomical images from the combination of three black and white plates exposed with appropriate colour filters.

In 2009 he co-curated the spectacular From Earth to the Universe exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Dr Malin’s latest book is Ancient light: A portrait of the Universe, published by Phaidon in 2009.

TOUR DATES The Science Centre & Planetarium, Wollongong Thursday 20 October – Tuesday 29 November 2011 Scienceworks, Melbourne Monday 12 December 2011 – Sunday 1 April 2012 Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium Friday 13 April – Thursday 24 May 2012 The Science Exchange, Adelaide Monday 4 June – Sunday 15 July 2012