Alex Cherney gets 2nd place in National Geographic contest!

[iceman]

Wow, was looking at the photos this morning and saw a name I recognised!

alexch!

Congrats Alex! 2nd place in the National Geographic "Best Night Sky Photos of 2011".

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/pictures/110517-best-space-contest-science-astronomy-stars-auroras-night-sky/#/pictures-night-sky-astrophotography-photo-contest-australia-milky-way_35563_600x450.jpg

Beautiful shot.

[supernova1965]

Congrats Alex that is great:thumbsup:

[Octane]

Congratulations, Alex! What an honour, and, what an awesome photo, to boot!

H

[multiweb]

Congrats. Great achievement and supeb pic to boot. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

That's bloody fantastic Alex :thumbsup:

There seems to be two categories there, Beauty of the Night Sky and Against the light..? Were they categories named throughout the year..?

Nice job a wonderful photograph...David Malin will like it too...it has a tree in it :D

Mike

[renormalised]

Well done to Alex....brilliant piccie!!!:):)

[astroron]

Congratulations Alex,Fabulous photo.
Well done.
Cheers :thumbsup:

[scagman]

WOW

Excellant shot Alex.

John

[leon]

That is a beautiful scene indeed, congratulations Alex,

Leon

[TrevorW]

Well done Alex

[Paddy]

Congratulations Alex. An impressive achievement and a great photograph.

[DavidU]

Totally awesome Alex ! Well done, what a blinder of an image.:thumbsup:

[gary]

We had the opportunity to meet Alex at the South Pacific Star Party.

Congratulations on the award winning entry! An absolutely stunning image. :thumbsup:

With 123 years experience of selecting some of the best photographs ever taken from
around the globe, the National Geographic Society certainly know a thing or two
about an award winning image when they see one and having an image recognized
by them is an accolade that many photographers dream of but only some of the very
best ever achieve.

[erick]

Impressive!! Well done Alex! :)

Now I've looked at it some more, what a beauty! Here are the comments from NG:-

"A tree seems to bend in a galactic breeze in a July 2010 picture of the central bulge of the Milky Way (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/12/milky-way/croswell-text) taken from Australia (http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/australia-guide/).Our solar system lies in one of the galaxy's spiral arms, about halfway from the galactic center. Recent studies show that the Milky Way's dusty heart houses a supermassive black hole.
"The position of the Milky Way in this image—lying horizontally, just above the horizon—gives the sense that it's just beyond arm's reach. Walk to the horizon, and instead of falling off the edge of the Earth, you can step into the rest of the galaxy," said contest judge Mike Simmons, president of Astronomers Without Borders (http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/), a TWAN co-founder, and a contributing editor at Sky & Telescope magazine (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/).
"This connection of Earth and sky is actually quite real, if not always so apparent. The Earth is in space, and we are traveling through the galaxy upon it. Giving me a sense of our status as space travelers is what I love about this image," Simmons said via email."

[Ric]

A wonderful image Alex and congratulations for your award.

[h0ughy]

well done Alex

[alexch]

Thanks heaps for nice comments, guys!

[alexch]

Thanks, Mike!
These images were chosen by TWAN as winning entries (http://twanight.org/newTWAN/news.asp?newsID=6065)in the 2011 International Photo Contest on Dark Skies Importance (http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/news.asp?newsID=6064)
I think it was announced sometime in April.

The first place winner (http://twanight.org/newTWAN/news/6065-6.jpg) is an incredible panoramic image of Aurora Borealis - I'd rate as the best I have ever seen. Larger version (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1105/aurora_vetter_2000.jpg) in today's APOD (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110517.html)

Cheers,
Alex

Alex

[strongmanmike]

So it wasn't a National Geographic contest but rather the ran the winning images on their web site..? Will they be printed in NG?

Mike

[alexch]

That's right, it was a TWAN contest covered by NG, althought they don't make it too obvious in their article.

Not sure if these will get into a printed edition.
Alex

[Analog6]

It's a beautiful image Alex, well done.

[marc4darkskies]

WOW!! Well done Alex ... well deserved recognition!! Your images are awesome!

Cheers Marcus

PS: I'm glad the DMs have more than one category! ;):lol:

[Paul Haese]

Congrats Alex and I understand you also won the Starmus competition too. If so congrats for that too.:thumbsup:

[alexch]

Thanks Paul.

Yes my time lapse was chosen at Starmus Astro Photo competition (http://www.starmus.com/pages/en/competition.php) as an overall winner just recently and I am still finding it hard to comprehend what happened partially because of the prize. It is a trip to the festival and an hour to observe an object of choice on GRANTECAN 10.4m optical telescope (largest in the world so far).

As you know, Starmus (http://www.starmus.com/en.php?lang=en) is a festival on Canary Islands in June to commemorate 50 years of manned space exploration and the list of guests is nothing short of amazing - Leonov, Tereshkova, Aldrin and others:
http://www.starmus.com/pages/en/tribute.php

The announcement is on the website so I guess this is really happening.
http://www.starmus.com/pages/en/winners-starmus-astro-photography-competition128.php

The FoV of the OSIRIS (http://www.gtc.iac.es/en/pages/instrumentation/osiris.php) camera on GRANTECAN is 7.8' and I deciding upon an object won't be easy...

Cheers,
Alex

[Liz]

What an honour!!! Congratulations Alex. :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Hmm, just meeting half of those people would be awesome. I hope you get to talk to them.

I would image a galaxy if it was me. I am sure you will enjoy whatever you get to image or should I say observe.:)

[gary]

Hi Alex,

A second round of congratulations are in order!

All this is pointing to the fact that there is no luck involved in any of this, it can only
be attributed to pure skill.

[strongmanmike]

...:question:....:eyepop:

:bowdown:

Mike :thumbsup:

[iceman]

WOW, double congrats Alex.

[multiweb]

:eyepop: How awesome is that! Pick an area where it's really crowded so you can do a bit of hopping around ;)

[Irish stargazer]

Those shots are awesome. Your images just keep getting better and better. Well done Alex!!

[Jen]

:prey2::prey2: your pics are amazing Alex congrats :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Can i fit in your suitcase when you go play with the bigger toys :lol: