COVID-19 restrictions might have cruelled the plans of last Saturday's planned Astrofest event at the Dish, but the famed David Malin Awards for astrophotography were still presented via livestream, with some incredible images of the night sky featuring.
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During a special online presentation, the Central West Astronomical Society (CWAS) announced the winners of the awards, named after famed British-Australian astronomer and photographer Dr David Malin AM.
CSIRO's John Sarkissian OAM, the Operations Scientist out at Parkes' Radio Telescope organised the Astrofest event and was full of praise for all the entrants in the awards.
"The high quality of the images is a testament to the outstanding skills and talents of Australian astrophotographers," he said earlier this week.
This year's competition had seven categories: Deep Sky, Wide-Field, Solar System, Nightscapes, Animated Sequences (Scientific and Aesthetic), and Junior. Entries came from throughout Australia.
In order to build on the experience of previous years, and to continue as the premier competition of its kind in Australia, a panel of three distinguished Australian astrophotographers judged the category entries: Peter Ward, Phil Hart, and Alex Cherney, with Dr Malin judging the Overall Winner.
The trio are all previous David Malin Award winners, as well as numerous other national and international astrophotography competitions.
It was not just technical skill that was assessed either - prizes were awarded to pictures that captured the beauty of the sky and the intrinsic interest of astronomy in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
The Overall Winner for 2021 was Marley Butler with his beautiful nightscape image, 'Between a Rock and Outer Space.'
In Dr Malin's citation of the winner, he praised the nightscape that was set over a dramatic sea.
"This is a lovely panoramic nightscape. What makes it work is the overall colour balance, the evident (but not dominant,) rocky foreground and the softened, time exposed sea. The stars are pin-sharp, and the Milky Way embraces the whole thing, including the zodiacal light. Beautiful!"
Astrophotography is regarded as the hardest genre of all photography, and while it has a reputation of needing very expensive equipment, these days it is possible to take amazing shots with a smartphone or a basic DSLR with the right settings.
Truth be told, taking the shot/s is just a small part of the process - the best pictures come through great image processing and editing.
Adobe Lightroom is the most widely used software, and a fantastic starting point.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the permanent exhibition of the winning images at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory visitor's centre will be officially opened when the restrictions are eased, where it will remain on show for one year.
The CWAS David Malin Awards were proudly supported by CSIRO, Celestron Australia (who sponsored with $10,000 worth of gift vouchers) and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.
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