Interview with Boris, nPAE 2020 World Champion Astrophotographer

[nPAE (Dave)]

Dear All,

We were thrilled to recently interview Boris from La Serena in Chile on his world champion winning astro photo “Grito Galatico”.

Find out all about the man himself and the inspiration for this amazing shot.

https://www.npae.net/wp-content/uplo...ew_English.pdf

Enjoy!

http://www.npae.net/wp-content/uploa...Champion-1.jpg

[Nikolas (Nik)]

That's a composite photo, hence not realistic and that won??????????????
Don't get me wrong it's a great composite image but that won???????????????

[TrevorW]

A nightscape won Astro Photo, the galactic rim is a background for so many of these images I cannot see how they even class these as Astro photography, I could probably show a dozen from a dozen different people where the background is the same the only difference is the landscape. Not my cup of tea sorry

[atalas]

Man....I've seen better work in the beginners forum no getting away from corruption anywhere

[JA]

Within the confines of the competition and its rules he won and is the champ. Good on him.

Best
JA

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Originally Posted by JA

Within the confines of the competition and its rules he won and is the champ. Good on him.

Best
JA

Nah
Not worth entering the competition, it's garbage if that's what they choose and does a great disservice to many decent astrophotographers.

[JA]

Originally Posted by Nikolas

Nah
Not worth entering the competition, it's garbage if that's what they choose and does a great disservice to many decent astrophotographers.

Hi Nik,

Some like 'em one way, others another (Blonde, Brunette, Red, Grey......) Anything that's considered or put up as potentially arty will always have varying degrees of acceptance or not. Astrophotography is something of a crossover area between art and science so there will always be advocates one way or another for all sort of reasons and over all sorts of techniques/parameters that were used or not used.

I'm happy to say: live and let live.

Best
JA

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Regardless mate the final image is nothing to write home about, I have seen much better images than that. For such a so called prestigious competition if that's what they served up as a winning image, then it's not really prestigious.

[gregbradley]

Hehehe, I bet he's happy the comp and results were posted here.

Greg.

[alpal]

Originally Posted by atalas

Man....I've seen better work in the beginners forum no getting away from corruption anywhere

If he's really a champion then I must be a 20 times APOD winner.

[JA]

I just looked on the nPAE website.
There is a Northern Hemisphere Objects Astro Competition that closes March 31st 2021

https://www.npae.net/competition/

There is no clear delineation of "Northern Hemisphere Objects", but certainly we share some. It also says DSO, Planetary, Lunar or Solar targets are OK.
So dust off your cameras, scopes and processing and Go get 'em guys & gals. Sounds like we need an IIS winner.

Best
JA

[Peter Ward]

Reminds me of the US World series....only played by teams from the USA.

The "winning" image would have been disqualified in the Malin's due to it being a composite. The whole thing looks to be nothing more than a PR stunt to me, but good luck to the "world champ" as you had to be in it to win it.

[JA]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Reminds me of the US World series....only played by teams from the USA.

Yes I had that vibe too given the world champion moniker. It all begs the question, in the spirit of raising the bar: are you in?
Or for that matter any other fellow IIS guys and gals?

Best
JA

[atalas]

You know, the thing that's really great about astrophotography is that It's real, and, I believe It should stay that way and not be cancelled and turned into something that It is not.

You want to be the champion of something unreal? fine, but the competition should be titled as such.....or do we want people to believe something is real when It is not....seems to be the go these days.

Like I said before.....there's no evading corruption these days.....anywhere but hey, you can believe what you want but just remember that everyone has that right as well.

[JA]

Hi Atalas,

I agree on the issue that astro or nature in particular is very grounding and real - absolutely.

On the subject of corruption in general I'd say it's been with us for a very very long time throughout the world, in government, in corporations, in sport, in fact in all spheres of human endeavour. The wonderful thing is now days with our ability to communicate widely the matrix is a bit more evident. However question too loudly on the wrong subject, too high in chain or "rank" and then that will result in cancellation, be it with the conspiracy theorist label, some smear or worse.

It would be great to know the truth about anything. If we could all choose a superpower that would be mine.

Best
JA

[nPAE (Dave)]

Hi All,

Thank you for your comments on our competitions. We felt some of the remarks warrant a response.

Corruption: Absolutely not. It’s a public competition open to anyone at any level. The choice of winners reflects the diversity of entrant’s ability and the range of objects. Given that landscape, deep sky, lunar, planetary and solar images are all valid not everyone will agree with the judges choices. There is also public opinion poll for each hemisphere where you can vote for your favourite photo.

The judges can only judge what is put in front of them. If you are a talented astrophotographer and want recognition for your work, you are invited to enter.

The Grito Galactico photo was single exposure taken with Canon EOS rebel t6 camera with the 18-55mm lens kit at F3.5 and ISO 3200. It is not a composite.

The World Champion award is given by a public vote between the winners of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere rounds. Please take part if you would like to influence the outcome.

The dates for the 2021 competitions are:

Northern Hemisphere January 1st to March 31st. Results announced 1st May
Southern Hemisphere June 1st to August 31st. Results announced 1st October
World Champion Vote: Previous World Champion against current North and South winners. Mid October, results announced 1st November.

Many thanks,

nPAE Precision Astro Engineering.

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Considering the "quality" of the winning entry there is no way anyone in their right mind would participate. Seriously there is something wrong with this. It most certainly looks like a composite as the image is way too sharp in the sky to be a single shot. sorry not buying what you say, this is a disappointing and insulting result for many astrophotographers who pour their blood sweat and tears to be upstaged by a rather ordinary image. Your "judges"need to be sacked.