The image also won the Nightscapes category of the competition.

The Central West Astronomical Society's (CWAS) astrophotography competition was once again held as part of the CWAS AstroFest. 

Amateur astronomers and photographers from around Australia were invited to take part in the exhibition and to submit their astrophotographs for consideration in the prestigious awards which were judged in eight categories – Deep Sky; Wide-Field; Nightscapes; Solar System; Animated Sequences: Scientific, Aesthetic; Themed Section: Revealing the Colours of the Stars; and Junior (18 years old and younger).

Entries were judged by world-renowned astrophotographer, Dr David Malin, without him being aware of the identity of the photographers. 

“This is absolutely beautiful in all respects, to my eye at least, and is one of the finest night-time landscape images I have ever seen,” Dr Malin said of Luke’s image “Crescent Moon at Lake Oberon”.

“The texture of the foreground and silhouetted outlines of the background hills add to dramatic depth of the scene, and the curved shoreline of the lake and the Milky Way complete a moonlit mountain landscape. Superb!”

The winners were presented with the David Malin Awards in the presence of invited dignitaries, during the CWAS AstroFest conference on Saturday, July 14. 

The dignitaries included Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, Cr Ken Keith (Mayor of Parkes Shire Council), Alan Brightman (General Manager - Sunstudios, Canon Australia), Dr Fred Watson (AAO) and Dr Andrew Jacob (Sydney Observatory).

This year's permanent exhibition will be on show at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory's Visitor's Centre for one year.

A second touring exhibition will travel to selected venues, starting at Sydney Observatory on September 6.

Last year's exhibitions were viewed by more than 200,000 people Australia-wide.

To view all of the winning images, visit: http://www.cwas.org.au/