The Astrophotography Prize

[Andy01]

(Posted with Permission)

We are thrilled to announce that, following the immense success of the 2023 Astrophotography Prize categories, we are elevating the event to new heights, and we want to see your best Astrophotography images!

The 2024 Astrophotography Prize (https://astrophotographyprize.com/home) will now be its own dedicated event, taking place over two days on the 13th and 14th of September, 2024.

There's a $20,000 AUD prize pool up for grabs, including...


QHY367C Colour camera (full frame) from Sidereal and CFF Telescopes (https://www.siderealtrading.com.au/)

Annual Subscription to Deep Sky West (https://www.deepskywest.com/subscribe)

Stellarvue SVX102T Telescope from Stellarvue (https://www.stellarvue.com/svx102t/) for the overall Astrophotographer of the Year!
and more!

This exciting event will feature four live judging sessions followed by keynote presentations centred around our main categories:


Deep Space
Solar System
Astro Landscape
Remote Imaging

To ensure maximum accessibility for enthusiasts worldwide, the event will be live-streamed and recorded.

As the competition is centred around education, every entrant can receive written feedback on their entries.
Following the initial judging, the top 25 scoring images of each category will be re-judged live on YouTube by our international panel (https://astrophotographyprize.com/app-page-judges) of truly amazing astrophotographers.
These debates and discussions bring the global astrophotography community together and will prove to be an invaluable resource for all. :thumbsup:

Entry fees are applicable, (with a discount for bundles!), and competition entries close on September 1st.
So go to the website, read the rules, choose your categories and get your entries in! :D

If you missed out on the 2023 Astro Category judging you can check it out on the YouTube links below.
Discover why entering the 2024 Astrophotography Prize (https://astrophotographyprize.com/home) is a unique and not-to-be-missed experience! ;)

2023 Deep Space Replay (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtzEUrGRb6k&t=2s)
2023 Astro Landscape Replay (https://youtu.be/oHirYMjzJpo?si=L0GjQ-3oEe9oRs9O)

[strongmanmike]

Wow! even bigger and better this year! Great stuff!

As part of the inaugural event team last year, I had so much fun and it was most rewarding to be involved in, so I would like to provide some personal and honest words of endorsement to help encourage people to consider entering this prize, from a previous judges perspective :)

Personal circumstances have prevented me being involved this year but holy cow that line up of judges (https://astrophotographyprize.com/app-page-judges) this year is positively eyewatering :eyepop:. Entrants can rest assured their dedicated work, compiling, arranging and presenting their hard earned photons, will certainly not just disappear into the ether but will be assessed and critiqued by a large panel of the very best in the field, with feedback, can't complain about that!

For those interested in entering, I know first hand how much effort and thought goes into carefully assessing and providing feedback on your entries, both live in discussion and written and this is one of the aspects that makes this particular astroimaging contest unique in the world. You can actually find out why you received the result you did, what is good about the image, or if improvement could be had, what you could try differently, to lift or make your results stand out more, or give it that little extra kick etc.

So give it a shot if you have some work you particularly like, are particularly proud of, shows something new and cool, or would just like good honest feedback on. You will not only get feedback, if requested, but also recognition for the standard you have produced, a badge you can attach proudly on that image at your website if desired. Even more exciting, if you make the top 25 in your category, you will see your work displayed live on line and broadcast around the globe, and discussed by the "who's who" of International Astroimaging, I mean, WOW! how cool is that!...and who knows, you may even get lucky and win one of the excellent and totally astroimaging-relevant prizes! :prey:

Well done Andy and the Astrophotography Prize family, in providing such a unique platform for all imagers of the night sky, to have a crack at, be involved in and benefit from :thumbsup:

Mike

[Crater101]

This is indeed good and exciting news. I particularly like the notion of the event being education based, as objective and constructive feedback on images from a quality field of judges would be beyond price for those of us still finding our way in the photographic side of the hobby. I look forward to seeing the entries!

[Andy01]

The 2024 Astrophotography Prize is open, and entries will close in just a few weeks!
Are you ready? Would you like some guidance from seasoned astrophotographers and judges on improving your entries?

Join us as a panel of experienced astrophotographers (drawn from the AstroPrize judge team) will lend their expertise to help you prepare your images for competition.

The Online session will be held this Tuesday, August 13th, 7:30pm - 9:00pm AEST.

Register HERE (https://us05web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZModuGhrzgvHdaqnAZqykWIrsIEo1A3eNj i#/registration) to attend

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the meeting.

Attendees can submit up to three images for critique. Photos remain anonymous, and we won't discuss scores, but we will discuss steps that might help improve your images.

When you upload your files, please name them with your first and last name, #1, #2, and #3.
Interest in these sessions is usually high, so to ensure as many astrophotographers as possible receive feedback, we plan on going through everyone's #1 image; then, hopefully, we'll work through #2s and #3s.

Critique submissions will close at noon on Tuesday, 13th August, OR when the critique fills up, so don't wait until the last second to submit!

Upload your images HERE. (https://www.dropbox.com/request/ZX3XlbLi9w93ZBWRGznF) (Max 5mb each).

Attendance is free and open to everyone. Whether you submit images for critique or want to watch, listen, and learn, it will be a brilliant evening!

The session will NOT BE RECORDED to protect entrant privacy.

The Astrophotography Prize Team

[Andy01]

More Sponsors & Prizes have come on board, including


Chroma (divine filters for astro-imaging)
LTRimelapse
Samyang & Move Shoot Move (thanks to Sidereal)
Stellarvue
Sidereal
QSI
Deep Sky West
NEAIC
Astrography


Over $20,000 AUD worth of goodies to be won.
The complete prize list is HERE. (https://astrophotographyprize.com/app-page-prizes)

Reminder: Entries close on Sept 1st, gotta be in it to win it! :)
ENTER HERE (https://astrophotographyprize.com/app-page-how-to-enter)

[Andy01]

We are delighted to announce that Astrography (https://astrography.com/) is supporting the competition by providing printed AstroPanels in FineArt quality and size L (approximately 28x20 in / 70x50 cm)
for all Category Winners and Gold Award-winning images - including shipping! :jump2:

LAST WEEK TO ENTER!
$20,000+ AUD Prize Pool to be won, including a Stellarvue SVX 102T telescope valued at $5000 AUD!

Enter HERE (https://astrophotographyprize.com/app-page-how-to-enter), but hurry - entries close September 1st. :)

[Tulloch]

Since you are interested in good, honest feedback, might I suggest that for next year's competition that the prize for the best Solar System image is not a camera that designed for DSO AP?

Quite frankly it's a bit insulting, as if the panel are saying "Yeah, we saw what you did with that cute photo of Jupiter, but here's a proper camera so you can do some real astrophotography."

[Andy01]

Well, regardless of your perceived value of the prizes, you would first have to enter to win them, and many planetary imagers have already done so.
You will then have the opportunity to have your images seen and, should they make it to the top 25, discussed by some of the world's leading planetary imagers.

Thanks for your feedback; we'll take it on board for next year. :)

[Andy01]

We welcome NEAIC (https://www.neafexpo.com/neaic) as sponsors of the Astrophotography Prize. :)

The North-East Astro Imaging Conference is held annually in New York and is the premier in-person astrophotography conference in the United States.

Next year's conference in April features over 15 speakers already!

NEAIC 2025
April 7 - 8, 2025 (Monday & Tuesday)*
Tickets on sale in Nov 2024

[strongmanmike]

The live judging for the Deep Space category was done this morning and man what fun and how difficult was it?!! felt like trying to determine and pick your favourite child, :lol: !! Man! the quality of images was truly astounding, really super high quality, it took some serious hair splitting to differentiate the top 25 entries, even with esteemed judges like physist DR Tanya Hill, ASA's master imager Wolfgang Promper and the one and only Rogelio Bernal Andreo on the panel :eyepop: The Remote category will be judged this evening and there is still time to get tickets (https://astrophotographyprize.com/home)

Results in soon :thumbsup:

Mike

[Andy01]

Congratulations to the Category Winners (https://astrophotographyprize.com/app-page-winners) of the Astrophotography Prize! :D

Deep Space

Yann Sainty (France)
Yann Sainty (France)
Kevin Morefield (USA)


Astro Landscape

Kavan Chay (NZ)
Troy Casswell (Australia)
Will Hudson (Australia)


Solar System

Phil Hart (Australia)
Gerald Rhemann (Austria)
Phil Hart (Australia)


Remote Imaging

Julian Shapiro (USA)
Logan Carpenter (NZ)
Herbert Walter (Austria)


Click HERE (https://astrophotographyprize.com/app-page-prizes) to view the Winners and Runners-up prizes.

All the podium placegetters received hard-won Gold Awards for their winning entries, with scores of 90+ for these images.
Dare I say the standard was Astronomically high! :lol:

In addition to the $20,000 AUD prize Pool, each Category winner will also receive a coveted 'AstroPrize Star" trophy. :)

Our esteemed international panel, which included world-class astrophotographers, award-winning master landscape photographers, and astrophysicist Dr. Tanya Hill, deserves special thanks!

The team's extraordinary dedication was evident as they connected globally via Zoom, overcoming significant time zone challenges.
For the Deep Space judging, Wolfgang Promper joined us at 1:00 AM from Vienna, and Lloyd Smith participated at 5:00 AM from Atlanta, USA.

Deep Space Judges ...

Wolfgang Promper (Austria)
Bray Falls (USA)
Mike Sidonio (Australia)
Rogelio Bernal Andrea (USA)
Dr. Tanya Hill (Australia)


Solar System Judges ...

Christopher Go (Phillipines)
Marco Lorenzi (Singapore)
Jean-Luc Dauvergne (France)
Peter Eastway (Australia)
Dr.Tanya Hill (Australia)


Astro Landscape Judges ...

Alison Carlino (USA)
Rogelio Bernal Andrea (USA)
Peter Eastway (Australia)
Ari Rex (Australia)
David Glazebrook (Australia)


Remote Imaging judges ...

Lloyd Smith (USA - Deep Sky West)
Wolfgang Promper (Austria)
Mike Sidonio (Australia)


Robyn Campbell was the Astrophotography Prize Event MC and Astroprize competition co-ordinator, and Andy Campbell was the Panel Mentor/Chair and competition director.
The team included Daniel Bingham, who provided incredible technical and software support by coding bulletproof and lightning-fast competition software, and Laurent Lamberty, who professionally directed the livestream.

There were 497 entries, and the top 25 in each category were judged live via Zoom and simultaneously broadcast to participants on YouTube.
This allowed entrants to receive real-time comments and feedback on their images.

All 497 entries were initially pre-judged by a panel of three experts from the above lists, including Marcel Drechsler (Germany, Deep Space) and Anthony Wesley (Australia, Solar System). For a small additional fee, all entrants could receive written feedback on their entries. Unlike most others, the Astrophotography Prize competition ethos is based on education, providing aural and/or written feedback to help entrants improve their astrophotography skills.

The competition would not exist without the generous support of our sponsors.

NEAIC - Americas' Premier Astro-Imaging Conference
Stellarvue Telescopes
Sidereal Trading & CFF TElescopes
QSI/Atik
Deep Sky West
Chroma Technology
Astrography
LTRimelapse and
Astrobin.


All judges are voting to choose the overall winner, who will be announced on Tuesday 17 Sept.
The Overall winner will receive a Stellarvue SVX102T Telescope valued at over $5000.

[Andy01]

And the Overall Winner is .... Phil Hart from Australia! :clap::clap::clap:

The international judging team has voted from the category winners, and Phil's incredible High Res Solar Eclipse image was chosen as the overall winner of the Astrophotography Prize!
Phil states that this is the highest-resolution (white light) image of the solar corona ever captured by anyone, anywhere! :bowdown:

Phil wins a beautiful Stellarvue SVX 102T (https://www.stellarvue.com/svx102t/) from Stellarvue Telescopes valued at $5000 AUD Congratulations Phil! :party2:

Check his work out HERE (https://philhart.com/) and be sure to watch Phil's Announcement Video (https://youtu.be/izZlbLU9pho?si=YgqHWmOUVY5Migc7).

[strongmanmike]

Dare I say...Phils image eclipsed all the others :P

Ok so, while short in duration, in its totality, that pun may have caused umbridge, sorry...I'll sneak off and play with my Baileys beads and sink a cold Corona :face:

Mike

[Andy01]

View the Winners Gallery!

Are you curious to see the Gold, Silver, and Highly Commended images from the 2024 Astrophotography Prize?

You can now view them all HERE! (https://astrophotographyprize.com/app-comp-gallery) :D

Congratulations to all entrants whose images are featured in the Gallery! :2thumbs:

[strongmanmike]

Quality display of the winners gallery Andy, nicely done.

Wonderful to see so many amaaaazing images, a true feast for the eyes.

Hopefully all those who entered wonderful images can now see for themselves, the difficulty the judges faced :eyepop: :shrug: Bit like on the Voice TV program, not getting a chair turn does not mean your image was not worthy of praise, there are so many nuances and aspects to a great image and a number of different sets of images could have easily made the top cut..but alas, a top 25 had to be chosen and then ordered into a top three, no matter how difficult it may have been. The open, transparent and accountable way the broad Astrophotgraphy Prize judging panel addresses this near impossible task, does a great job of sifting through such an incredible array of amazing images, to finish up with worthy winners. :thumbsup:

Nice work Astrophotography Prize team :clap:

Mike

[astronobob]

Well that was another pretty amazing year seeing such talented photog, they're not just kind words either, astro photog is the most difficult in the world so we're privileged seeing these,, top shelf and quite some sights for saw eyes, particularly the night-scapes for this duck !

Credits to all involved making this a thing :cool3:

[strongmanmike]

A nice piece on the Astrophotography Prize 2024 (https://scopetrader.com/astrophotographer-of-the-year-from-astrophotography-prize-2024/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFyuKxleHRuA2FlbQIxM QABHTkSS5-BQaje29eHfqbfyyHMqKTdy4VNGcQQ5xxxZx 9j-5xWLVWKJZaWcw_aem_vb1grAwyu3FFWZJaF 25VVg), in Scope Trader :)

Mike

[Andy01]

Yep, and another one celebrating the Astrophotography Prize category winners here in NEW ATLAS (https://newatlas.com/photography/astrophotography-prize-competition-solar-eclipse/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFy3UNleHRuA2FlbQIxM QABHZxABTWZVESzZIUpxDicquhOnvzF4SQJ sGPle-LYPeFWdaXNKu5DiHl1Zg_aem_tiWR5AFNpo yUU7CrIsnLhw) :D

[strongmanmike]

Man looking again at Julian Shapiro's "Two Oxygen Rings of Cygnus" and noting it reveals something new and now knowing he is only 16 years old, is quite incredible really and illustrates beautifully how technology, in this case remote imaging, has made it possible for so many more people to do what we do :thumbsup:. Heck, I was also an active astrophotographer at 16 years old but the notion that I could use some gear on the other side of the World to produce a best in World standard image aaaand make a discovery to boot!...from a place like a teenagers bedroom :eyepop:, is just mind blowing. Back in the day, I was just stoked that I had access to a 140 year old 9" refractor (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/110766126/original), with a clockwork drive, at Mt Stromlo, to strap an old C5 to and lug dry ice and a fridge compressor up a 300m path in the dark to it :lol:...er?...for a laugh, my work as a 16 year old, from 1984, can be seen here (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/in_the_begining) :face:

what a change! :thumbsup:

Mike

[Andy01]

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Astrophotography Prize, who are now featured in Popular Science magazine (https://www.popsci.com/science/2024-astrophotography-prize-photographer-of-the-year-images/)!

Seeing these talented photographers gaining well-deserved global recognition in such a renowned publication is fantastic! :D

Their images, which capture celestial wonders with stunning detail and creativity, highlight the artistry and technical skill of astrophotography.

This exposure amplifies the significance of the competition and brings these breathtaking views of the cosmos to a broader audience. :thumbsup: