ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

2013

WELCOME TO THE ASTROFEST 2013 ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

The 2013 Astrofest astrophotography exhibition, presented at Western Australias biggest annual astronomy festival, is a celebration of superb, diverse and recent astronomical photography. Presented at Curtin University on the 16th of February 2013, and now in its fourth year, the 2013 astrophotography exhibition has attracted the largest number of entrants to date. This years astrophotos and timelapse videos are presented as a digital and print exhibition, and have been selected from twenty five astro-photographers. The exhibition also includes a showing of The World At Night digital exhibition, which brings an international perspective to astronomical photography. This year features a wide range of astrophotos, such as star trail, night-scapes, the Sun and Moon, and deep space images. The technical mastery

demonstrated by many of the exhibited entries is testament to the talent and capabilities of the exhibited astrophotographers. We also see a strong theme of night landscape images, often visually creative as well as new and young astrophotographers entering the field, with considerable success. Virtually all of the images are by Western Australian residents or visitors. Two major astronomical events that took place in 2012 are featured prominently in the 2013 exhibition; the Total Solar Eclipse (14 November 2012), which was visible in Queensland and the Northern Territory, and the Transit of Venus (6 June 2012). These events have inspired West Australian astrophotographers to travel to capture these remarkable photos. The 2013 exhibition is made possible by the collaboration and support of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Celestial Visions and The World at Night. The exhibition reveals the awesome beauty of the Universe we live in, and provides inspirational images that evoke wonder in the mysteries and beauty of the night sky. I trust you enjoy the 2013 astrophotography exhibition.
John Goldsmith Astrofest Astrophotography Curator
Cover Photo: Horsehead and Flame Nebulae on the belt of Orion. Andrew Lockwood

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Moonbow at 5200m Colin Legg Taken just after moon rise at a Chilean Geyser field, high in the Andes.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Pinnacles Starlight Ronald Tan A 25 second exposure shot of the Pinnacles rock formation taken with Canon 500D and Canon EF-S 15-85mm lens at 15mm. This shot was additionally lit with a torch and camera flash.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Cosmic Dreaming Colin Legg Sleeping under the stars on a hot night in central South Australia.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Pinnacles Moonset Grahame Kelaher Single shot of Moonset with the famous Pinnacles rock formations in the foreground. Basic photoshop touchups applied.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Celebrating the night sky Chris Thorne Celebrating the night sky at Lake Ballard.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Pinnacles Milky Way Grahame Kelaher Single shot of the famous Pinnacles rock formations and a Milky Way backdrop. Basic photoshop touchups applied.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

An ancient landscape and a modern radio telescope

Pete Wheeler
The full Moon lights the ancient Murchison landscape to reveal a tile of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope. This is a 30 second exposure, taken with a Canon 550D equipped with a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. The MWA project is led by Curtin University and is a collaboration between research institutions in Australia, India, New Zealand and the US. The telescope has 4,096 antennas, with 32 located on each of the 128 tiles that are spread as far as 3km apart.The MWA is designed to have an excellent field of view on the sky (equivalent to about 500 full moons) and to be very adaptable, being almost exclusively electronically controlled.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Sunset over Skymapper Mehmet Alpaslan This photo, taken from the AAT catwalk at Siding Spring Observatory on April 25th, 2012, shows the Moon and Venus rising over the Skymapper telescope, silhouetted in the foreground.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Murchison Widefield Array John Goldsmith Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope, southern stars and a fireball meteor. The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope consists of more than 2000 radio antennas spread across 3 square kilometres, in 128 groups. The network of radio telescope antennas are formed by groups of dualpolarisation dipole antennas. Unlike steerable radio telescope dishes, these antennas contain no moving parts. Instead, advanced signal computer processing is used to focus the antennas on different parts of the sky. In November 2012,The World at Night astrophotographer John Goldsmith recorded a fireball meteor above the MWA radio antennas. The fireball appeared low in the southeast sky, and created glowing dust that persisted for several minutes. The fireball was recorded by two cameras, during multi-hour timelapse sequences. One camera used a fisheye lens (180 view), and the other used a 24mm wide angle lens, close to the MWA antennas.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Geminid Meteors at Perth Observatory Roger Groom Five bright Geminid meteors shoot across the skies of the Perth Observatory in this all night photograph. From a series of all-night photographs ten frames are stacked for the stars plus five selected frames with meteors. Overlayed in Photoshop with a further stack of foreground exposures.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Comet McNaught, with the Australia Telescope Compact Array in the foreground Steven Tingay
This image was taken on January 26th, 2007 at the Australia Telescope Compact Array radio telescope, located near Narrabri in NW NSW. A crescent Moon illuminates the foreground. The image was obtained using a Canon AE-1 Program 35 mm SLR camera and 400 ASA film, 50 mm lens (f1.8) and 30 s exposure. The commercially processed print was scanned to JPG format.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

25 Obsession Nova Vandenbeld No processing, straight out of the camera.

*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Celestial South Star Trail Gemma Boys

An hour of 30 second exposures stacked, showing the Celestial South Pole. 160 photographs stacked using software from www.startrails.de.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Night Lights Colin Legg A red Aurora Australis lights up the sky over Wilsons Promontory while millions of luminescent organisms render the waves blue. January 17 2013.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Celestial Splendour at Lake Ballard John Goldsmith A spectacular celestial sight with Jupiter and Venus, the crescent moon, the Seven Sisters (Pleiades), Taurus and Orion, rising above the Pyramid Hill, Lake Ballard, home to Antony Gormleys Inside Australia art project and its 50 metal statues, stretching across the flat salt lake. From a timelapse sequence, basic contrast / brightness adjustments applied.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Moonrise at Fitzgerald National Park Sean Standen

This is a 2 image stitch taken near Bremmer Bay in the South West. Each exposure was around 30 seconds at an extremely high ISO. Processing includes a small noise reduction, light vignetting and small colour adjustment.

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Skywatchers under the Milky Way & Southern Cross

John Goldsmith Southern skywatchers have been treated to a comet display, in the centre of the iconic Southern Cross. The comet, called Comet Lemmon, passed through the centre of the Southern Cross, early in the hours of 20 January 2013. In this image, astrophotographers and skywatchers recorded the event, as the comet passed through the centre of the Southern Cross. the comet appeared as a hazy ball of light with a slight tail, with the astrophotos recording a bluish green in colour. Astronomers and skywatchers are widely anticipating the appearance of two comets in 2013, Comet Panstarr and Comet ISON, both of which may provide superb views in 2013.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL LANDSCAPES

Bungle Bungles Full Dome Colin Legg 360 x 195 degree view of the Milky Way setting over the Bungle Bungles in Western Australia.

ASTRONOMICAL PANORAMAS

The Milky Way sets as the Sun rises Rahi Varsani

A stunning 360 degree panorama of the Milky Way rising from the Pinnacles in WA. Going from East, North, West and South (right to left), you can see the orange light pollution domes from Perth (South) and Jurien Bay/Geraldton (North).

ASTRONOMICAL PANORAMAS

Lake Ballard Illumination John Goldsmith

Lake Ballard (Western Australia) is home to Antony Gormleys Inside Australia art project in which 50 metal statues stretch across the vast landscape. In July 2012, astrophotographer John Goldsmith captured a remarkable scene featuring the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, arching over the Pyramid Hill, the red glow of the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis), along the southern horizon and a statue illuminated with red light. The appearance of Aurora from Lake Ballard (at -29 degrees latitude) is a fairly rare sight. The southern lights are caused by highly charged particles emitted from the sun, funnelled into the magnetic north and south poles of our planet. The suns activity follows an 11 year cycle.

Goldsmith used 360 degree mosaic panoramic digital imaging, processed with Auto Pano Giga software.

ASTRONOMICAL PANORAMAS

The Sun - Ha and White Light Rick Tonello

Imaged through Coronado SolarMAX 60 with a DMK 41 camera. Composite of 1500 frames stacked in REGISTAX.

ASTRONOMICAL PANORAMAS

The Milky Way Divya Palaniswamy

This photo was taken during mid June 2012 (one of coldest winters I have seen). Winter skies in Western Australia are absolutely brilliant. This was a learning night for me - I learnt a few very interesting things about the night sky and locating southern stars from an astronomer and astro photographer, John Goldsmith . For example the aboriginal stories about the Emu in the sky. This photo is a Panorama, each picture was about 3 min long on atracking mount. No extreme photo editing was made except for fixing the brightness and contrast of the image.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL TIMELAPSE

Celestial Visions John Goldsmith A collection of timelapse sequences from the Celestial Visions collection, including the superb Lake Ballard Inside Australia project, and the Pinnacles, Nambung National Park. Timelapse sequences also featured as part of the Luminous Night celebration, marking the centenary of The University of Western Australia (8 February 2013).
*This timelapse was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL TIMELAPSE

An ancient landscape and a modern radio telescope

Pete Wheeler A short timelapse sequence captured during a trip to the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (~700km north of Perth). Its one of the 128 tiles that make up the new Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope. The video contains about 2 hours worth of 30 second exposures from just after sunset until about 9:30pm. The Moon is lighting the landscape making it appear almost day like, and the dark patches are when the Moon disappears behind cloud. *This timelapse was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL TIMELAPSE

Geminids meteor shower Timelapse Grahame Kelaher Timelapse sequence taken from the Pinnacles of the Geminids meteor shower.
*This timelapse was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL TIMELAPSE

Delta Aquarid meteor shower Timelapse Grahame Kelaher Timelapse sequence taken from the Pinnacles of the Delta Aquarid meteor shower.
*This timelapse was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL TIMELAPSE

The Sweeping Shadow Colin Legg Wide angle views of the shadow sweeping across the landscape during the November 14 2012 FNQ Total Solar Eclipse. The light in the last 2 scenes was automatically tracked using a custom built bulb triggering device.
*This timelapse was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

ASTRONOMICAL TIMELAPSE

Nocturnal Scenes of the Southern Night Colin Legg A compilation of nightscape scenes from Western Australia and Chile. Includes Comet Lovejoy, a decaying meteor train, a Total Lunar Eclipse and various moonrises and moonsets.
*This timelapse was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

SUN AND MOON

Waxing Moon Chris Dixon This image is 130 x 1/1000 iso800 stacked in registax. The only editing was an adjustment to the contrast.

SUN AND MOON

Lunar Eclipse over Lake Joondalup Ronald Tan This stacked image shows the whole lunar eclipse sequence and comprises some 44 images taken at 5 minutes intervals with a Canon 500D and Canon EF-S 15-85mm lens at 24mm. The images were stacked using Startrail.de.

SUN AND MOON

Lunar eclipse Dec 2011 another world Brian Povey The appearance of the moon during a lunar eclipse is another world a ball of stone and dust just like Earth really. This image has some minor processing, just light and dark adjustments.

SUN AND MOON

Transit of Venus Rising With Silhouettes Roger Groom

The Sun rises with the Transit of Venus already in progress, and foreground ridgeline and clouds silhouetted. The golden morning light, natural ridgeline and peaceful surrounds of Lucky Bay capture this 1 in 100 year event like a time capsule. Taken from one of the very few places good enough for observations Lucky Bay, Esperance. Two bracketed exposures both through solar film. Minimal processing other than HDR blending.

SUN AND MOON

Moon rises over Perth city Ronald Tan The Moon rising over the Perth skyline taken with a Canon 500D and Canon EF-S 15-85mm lens. This images is comprised of two separate shots stacked using Startrail.de. One image showing the rising moon, and the other the lit office building as the lights came on.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

SUN AND MOON

Little Black Spot on the Sun, today Andrew Lockwood

6th June 2012 saw the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This image was taken about an hour into the event. Six separate panels were combined using Adobe Photoshop to produce this mosaic. Each image was derived from 900 monochromatic video frames, registered to each other, stacked and sharpened using Autostakkert 2.0. The false colour was applied using Photoshop. The imaging telescope was an 80mm Hydrogen Alpha telescope manufactured by Lunt Solar Systems.

SUN AND MOON

Hello Winter Brian Sture No processing. Taken from Mitchell Park South Perth a few days before the winter solstice. Taken on 18/6/2012 at 5.12pm.

SUN AND MOON

Sun Pillar Chris Thorne A Sun pillar: sunlight reflecting off high altitude ice, Perth.

SUN AND MOON

Craggy Sun Chris Thorne The Sun, low on the Perth city horizon, appears mis-shapen due to optical effects of bands of different air density in Earths atmosphere.

SUN AND MOON

The Megafilament Andrew Lockwood

Stretching 78,000km across the face of the sun on August 11, 2012 this megafilament and the three twister prominences were imaged using an 80mm diameter Hydrogen alpha telescope with a 0.7 Angstrom passband. These images were captured using a monochromatic video camera capturing 15 frames per second. One thousand frames in total were used, with the best 10% contributing to the final stack. The Pixinsight software was used to apply regularised Van Cittert deconvolution, and false colour added to produce the orange colour, with the prominences highlighted in red.

SUN AND MOON

Total Eclipse Ron Hille

Three images of the November 2012 Solar Eclipse taken at Adams Dam, QLD taken using a Sony alpha 75-300mm lens (250mm), 1/400 second, F7 ISO200. Top Left: Emerging Sun creating diamond ring effect. Middle: First glimpse of emerging Sun. Bottom Right: Seconds before totality finishes.

SUN AND MOON

Solar eclipse November 2012 Brian Povey What little of the November eclipse that was visible from Perth. I tried to take it rising above the city buildings but unfortunately clouds on the horizon obscured the view until it was well clear.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

SUN AND MOON

Outer solar Corona during total eclipse of November 2012 Steven Tingay The solar Corona at the point of totality during the solar eclipse of the 14th of November 2012, as seen from Palm Cove in far north Queensland. Image obtained using Canon EOS 1000D And 300mm lens (1/50 s exposure, F5.6). Image has been converted to black and white and an unsharp mask has been applied, to emphasise the highly filamentary nature of the outer Corona.

DEEP SPACE

Omega Centauri, a million stars in one Brian Povey Taken from Watsons retreat. A mix of five stacked photographs. Colours are natural.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

DEEP SPACE

Orion the Hunter Daniel Tonello (10 years old) Taken at Gingin as a guided, piggy back image.

DEEP SPACE

Incoming Spiral Andrew Lockwood

The Great Nebula in Andromeda, (M31, NGC224) and its companions, M32 and M110 are headed this way at 110km/sec. Fortunately we have time to duck as it is 770 KiloParsecs (2.5 million light years) away and wont hit for another 4 billion years. This image was acquired using an unmodified Nikon D800 DSLR, with a 560mm f5 APO lens on an autoguided Losmandy G11 mount. 6 x 600s long sub frames were combined using Pixinsight to give a total exposure of 1 hour. Image processing included ANCR Denoising, some wavelet based structure enhancement and the usual curves and levels adjustments to maximise the dynamic range.

DEEP SPACE

Crab Nebula Mark Bridger Taken with SBig ST8300 and Baader narrowband filters on a Skywatcher ED80. Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop.

DEEP SPACE

Comet Lemmon, First Comet Divya Palaniswamy A new comet named C/2012 F6 Lemmon was discovered on the 23rd of March 2012 of magnitude 20.7. Astronomers predicted this comet was becoming closer and brighter, crossing through the heart of the southern cross during mid January. Along with my fellow astro photographers, I set out to photograph this spectacular event few kilometres away from Perth. It was a very exciting and heart pounding moment as it turns out to be my first comet and I managed to capture it! No major processing has be done on this photo except auto colour correction.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

DEEP SPACE

Horsehead and Flame Nebulae on the belt of Orion

Andrew Lockwood
Barnard 33 is the horsehead-shaped dark nebula superimposed on the pale red glow of IC434. Nearby is the bright flame nebula NGC 2024, and the bright star left of centre is Alnitak (Zeta Orionis). These objects are all part of the Orion Molecular complex, visible as the dusty background across the whole frame, which is approximately 1500 light years away. Photographed with an unmodified Nikon D800 DSLR camera and a 530mm f5 APO lens, this is a combination of 12 600s exposures (2hrs total). The individual frames were digitally combined using PixInsight, and the postprocessing consisted of level and curve adjustments, noise reduction and colour saturation increase.

DEEP SPACE

NGC 3372, The Great Carina Nebula Daniel Judge

Located up to 10,000 Light years from Earth, the Great Carina Nebula is located in the constellation Carina. This nebula contains Eta Carinae, a super massive star with a mass up to 150 times greater than our Sun, and is approx. four million times more luminous. This bright emission cloud has been imaged with narrowband Ha and OIII filters and processed such to highlight its beautiful structure.

DEEP SPACE

The Witchs Broom Mark Bridger Taken with SBig ST8300 and Baader RGB filters on a Skywatcher ED80. Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop.

DEEP SPACE

Eta Carinae Narrowband Mark Bridger Taken with SBig ST8300 and Baader narrowband filters on a Skywatcher ED80. Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

DEEP SPACE

Tarantula Nebula NGC2070 HaRGB Paul Storey The stunning detail of the Tarantula Nebula. Nebula wide field 20 x 900 sec, Ha 18 X 600 sec, RGB, Darks, Bias, flats. Taken with Northgroup ED127mm APO, QHY10 camera. Stacked in CCDStack v2, post processing in Photoshop CS6. RGB with 70% merge Ha, levels, curves, selective colour.

DEEP SPACE

Messier 8, The Lagoon Nebula Daniel Judge

Located up to 6,000 Light years from Earth, the Lagoon Nebula is located in the constellation Sagittarius. The dark dust lanes within the center resemble a lagoon structure. This bright HII emission cloud has been imaged with narrowband Ha and OIII filters and processed such to highlight its beautiful structure.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

DEEP SPACE

Scorpius and Rho Ophiuchi Rick Tonello Taken with a Pentax 6x7 film camera, 50min guided exposure.

DEEP SPACE

The Unicorns Rosette Andrew Lockwood

Herschel initially catalogued this as a cluster of stars, now identified as NGC2244 visible at the centre of the image. Subsequently the nebulosity was discovered, gaining the additional designation NGC2239. The nebulosity and associated stars is about 3600 light years away in the constellation Monoceros, (The Unicorn).
This image is a combination of 6x600sec sub-frames taken using a Nikon D800 DSLR, a 530mm f5 APO lens on an autoguided equatorial mount. The images were calibrated using dark, flat and bias frames, then registered and stacked using Pixinsight. Subsequent processing included various denoising algorithms (ANCR, SCR) and manual stretching of the histogram and curves.
*This photo was displayed as part of the digital exhibition

DEEP SPACE

The Great Orion Nebula Ronald Tan Image of the Great Orion Nebula taken with modified Canon 1100D and Explore Scientific ED80 telescope. Processed using Pixinsight.

DEEP SPACE

Rosette Mark Bridger Taken with SBig ST8300 and Baader narrowband filters on a Skywatcher ED80. Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop.

ASTROFEST ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION 2013

Curator: John Goldsmith (Image selection: Kirsten Gottschalk, ICRAR) Exhibition contributors:
Mehmet Alpaslan Mark Bridger Roger Groom Grahame Kelaher Divya Palaniswamy Paul Storey Chris Thorne Rick Tonello Pete Wheeler Grant Boxer Chris Dixon Ron Hille Colin Legg Brian Povey Brian Sture Steven Tingay Nova Vandenbeld Gemma Boys John Goldsmith Daniel Judge Andrew Lockwood Sean Standen Ronald Tan Daniel Tonello Rahi Varsani

Sponsors: WPM Group Celestial Visions Associate: The World At Night

www.wpmgroup.com.au www.celestialvisions.com.au www.twanight.org

For the full A4 catalogue visit www.icrar.org/astrophoto

All images in the Astrofest 2013 astrophotography exhibition remain copyright the photographers.