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Winners: Deep Space
This category is for photos of anything beyond our Solar System, including stars, nebulae and galaxies.
Winners 2011 | Earth and Space | Our Solar System | Young astronomy photographer | Special prizes
Winner
Vela Supernova Remnant by Marco Lorenzi (Italy)
5 February 2011
What the photographer says:
‘I’ve always been inspired by supernova remnants, in particular by their reach and their different compositions. After all, several of the building bricks of life are created during these apocalyptic events.’
Pentax 67 DEIF 300mm (12 inch) telescope and FLI Proline 16803 CCD camera
What it shows:
This intricate structure is the aftermath of a supernova explosion, the violent death of a star many times more massive than the Sun. It took place over 10,000 years ago. Seen against stars and gas in the disc of our Milky Way , this expanding shell of debris and heated gas now covers an area of the sky which is twenty times wider than the disc of the full Moon.
What the judges say:
Sir Patrick Moore says: ‘This is a lovely picture of the Vela Supernova Remnant, so far as I know not quite the same as anything else in the sky. This splendid picture shows the details clearly. Such a pity we weren’t there to see the supernova go off!’
What Flickr members say:
strongmanmike2002says: ‘Superb image Marco, this is surely one of the favourites to take out APOTY..??? :-)’
Runner-up
Leo Triplet by Edward Henry (USA)
4 April 2011
What the photographer says:
‘I decided to create this image because I wanted a high-resolution shot of what is normally a low-resolution, wide-field image. This required a composite image, layering data from two different scopes, which gave me the desired effect.’
356mm (14 inch) F10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and TMB 130mm telescopes with an STL 4020 camera
What it shows:
The Leo Triplet is a group of three spiral galaxies located thirty-five million light years away. Like our own Milky Way, they are disc-like galaxies. They contain billions of stars with bright knots of gas and dark dusty lanes, which trace spiral patterns where new stars are formed. The galaxy on the left is seen edge-on, as we view our own galaxy.
Highly commended
Planetary Nebula Shapley 1 by Steve Crouch (Australia)
28 May 2011
What the photographer says:
‘I’ve always been interested in imaging obscure objects. Shapley 1 is best known from the David Malin image of it and I wanted to try and do one at least as good. I was surprised at how well it came out which shows how much imaging technology has advanced since David took his shot in the 1980s.’
12.5 inch RCOS Ritchey Chretien telescope and SBIG STL 6303E CCD camera
What it shows:
When viewed through a small telescope, planetary nebulae like Shapley 1 resemble nearby planets in our Solar System. They are, in fact, distant regions of hot, glowing gas ejected by stars as they run out of fuel at the end of their lives. The colours visible in the ring are caused by the temperature and chemical composition of the material this star has returned to its environment.
Highly commended
Fighting Dragons of Ara (NGC 6188 and 6164) by Michael Sidonio (Australia)
22 May 2011
What the photographer says:
‘I wanted to showcase this beautiful piece of Ara in a fresh new way, that would highlight the amazing structures and also reveal the rarely imaged faint expanding shell around NGC 6164.’
Orion Optics 300mm (12 inch) F3.8 corrected Newtonian astrograph telescope and a FLI ProLine 16803 camera
What it shows:
Powerful emissions of light and matter from hot, young stars are able to heat up and shape the clouds of gas and dust from which they form. The ‘dragons’ in this photograph have been shaped by the recent birth of stars much bigger and brighter than our Sun. One such star can be seen to the lower left of the image within two shells of glowing gas.
Highly commended
Orion, Head to Toe by Rogelio Bernal Andreo (USA)
13 July 2011
What the photographer says:
‘What moved me to embrace this ambitious project was the fact that I wanted to see all of the wonders of Orion in one colour frame at a resolution higher than what was already available.’
Takahashi FSQ 106 telescope and SBIG STL 11000M CCD camera
What it shows:
This image places the bright stars of a familiar constellation within a skyscape of fainter stars, gas and dust, which is invisible to the naked eye. Orion the Hunter, one of the most prominent winter constellations in the northern hemisphere, is laid out from left to right in this photograph. A huge cloud of gas and dust in which new stars are forming lies below the three stars of Orion’s belt, while bright red and blue supergiant stars mark his armpit and foot.
