The winners of the prestigious astrophotography competition of the Central West Astronomical Society (CWAS) were announced during a special online presentation on Saturday.
The overall winner of the ‘David Malin Awards’ is Marley Butler from Western Australia with his beautiful nightscape image called Between a Rock and Outer Space.
Entries came from all over the country for the seven categories: Deep Sky, Wide-Field, Solar System, Nightscapes, Animat-ed Sequences (Scientific and Aesthetic), and Junior.
Two photographers from Bathurst represented the Central West. Niall MacNeill received honourable mentions for two entries, while another two of his images received a highly commended. Rodney Watters received an honourable mention.
Known as the highest level astrophotography awards and premier competition of its kind in Australia, the annual competition is judged by a panel of three distinguished Australian astrophotographers namely Peter Ward, Phil Hart and Alex Cherney, who are all previous winners of the David Malin Awards, and numerous other national and international astrophotography competitions. Dr David Malin then judged the Over-all Winner from the list of these winners, as the best in show.
It was not just technical skill that was assessed – prizes were awarded to pictures that are technically excellent and captured the beauty of the sky and the intrinsic interest of astronomy in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
“The high quality of the images is a testament to the outstanding skills and talents of Australian astrophotographers”, said Astro-Fest organiser John Sarkissian.
Celestron Australia supported the competition with online gift voucher prizes valued at $10,000. Will Godward, National Sales Manager for Celestron Australia said: “Astrophotography is regarded as the hardest genre of all photography. The dedication and level of professionalism that is shown by these astrophotographers should be awarded and celebrated.”
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the permanent exhibition of the winning images at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory Visitor’s Centre, will be officially opened when the restrictions are eased. It will remain on show for one year. The second touring exhibition, organised by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, will travel to selected venues across Australia, beginning with Sydney Observatory in October.
See the back page of today’s issue for the print category winners, and to view all the winning images and animations, visit: http://www.cwas.org.au/