Royal Greenwich APOTY 2024

[Peter Ward]

Congratulations to the Aussie contingent in the "Astrophotography Olympics"

Link to prize winning images here
(https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-photographer-year/galleries/overall-winners-2024)
Some well known, and not so well known imagers made the shortlist:

Terry Robison
Alex van Harmelen
Andrew Campbell
Jonathan Lodge
Kelvin Hennessy
Jinyuan Chen
Phil Hart and Colin Legg
Andy Casely

Well done! (apologies if I missed anyone)

[keller60]

Well done to one and all...there is however a name missing.


I see you were on the podium again this year Mr Ward :thumbsup:



The standard of the images is truly "out of this world" :D

[Crater101]

Congratulations to all of the winners! Damn, but there's some nice work in there. Well done all! :clap:

[Peter Ward]

Ta. As the only Aussie on the podium this year I figured others deserved recognition as well.

Royal Greenwich attracts thousands of entrants from around the world hence making the
shortlist cut alone is quite an achievement.

Receiving the "Silver"/ runner up prize was however a wonderful vindication of the
effort taken on a rather epic road trip to Exmouth (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery613.html) and back.

The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2024/sep/13/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year-2024-winners-finalists) gave my entry a nice tip 'o the hat today. :)

[Dave882]

Well done everyone and especially to our Aussie contingent. Simply awesome work!!

[Peter Ward]

Some have suggested this is not a "real thread" (whatever that means) but the Royal Observatory APOTY competition consistently attracts thousands of entrants from 60 odd countries, gets global media attention, an impressive exhibition space at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, plus a superb Harper-Collins hardcover publication of the winning and shortlisted entries for the year.

There is a relatively new, privately run competition based in Melbourne that has no affiliation with any Astronomical institution (e.g. Royal Observatory, CSIRO, AAO) but is marketed well via social media etc. with a snazzy web site, significant entry fees and sells tickets for all manner of advice and participation. Probably a very nice little earner for the organisers (do the math, assuming say sponsors stumped up for the prizes, plus $100 in fees per entrant that's $50k net! )

While I choose not to enter that particular contest, some talented astrophotographers have, and to be fair, good luck to them. They are still "playing cricket", but to paraphrase: Steve Waugh was apparently playing a grade cricket game and ducked an awkward bouncer. The bowler remarked "you are not in a fancy test cricket match now".
Waugh retorted, "Yeah, I know because you are bowling". ;)

Sure it's nice to win a grade cricket match, but it's not the same as playing in a Test series.