Wide Field Winner: Rho Ophiuchi rides the Blue Horsehead by Ian Inverarity. This is one of the most colourful regions in the night sky and this unusual presentation impressed all three judges with excellent framing, good technical handling colour and dynamic range. It was the standout image of the section.
Junior Category (honourable mention): Into Shadow Faces of the Eclipse by Zachery Thexeira. This is an image of the 26th May lunar eclipse showing the apparent motion of the Moon across the night sky as it passes through the Earth’s shadow. By tracking the stars, the movement of the Moon across the starry background, is revealed by overlaying images taken every 20 minutes and at totality.
Solar System Winner: A rippling outbreak on Jupiter by Andy Casely. These are lovely im-ages with subtle colours and excellent detail. Happily, they also capture a new transient feature in the planet’s northern hemisphere as well as another interesting event in the southern hemisphere. Jupiter’s moons are a bonus.
Deep Sky Winner: The Trifid Nebula by Paul Montague. This intrinsically beautiful nebula is a difficult subject to get right, given the wide dynamic range, colourful reflection regions and dust absorption lanes. This image shows excellent technical execution, as well as an engaging image scale.
Photo Editor’s Choice Award: Sheltering from the Starlight by Ian Inverarity. What a wonderful balance between the night sky and such an iconic and majestic tree in a unique Australian outback landscape. The balance created with the human lighting up the detail of the age in the trunk and outer branches helps create an extra dimension to the image while also giving scale to the overall scene. A cracking picture.