(Photos are the copyrighted property of the photographers. Permission to use any of their photos for other purposes must be obtained from the photographer.)
These photos are this year's entries (winners are noted). You may be able to right-click on an image and view it in a separate tab/window to see a larger zoomable version.
The winners will be able to claim their 12x18 canvas print from Atlantic Photo Supply. Allen Sutherland of APS will contact the winners with further instructions in January. We thank our local dealer of Astronomy equipment, Atlantic Photo Supply for their generous prizes.
Wide Field
WF-01Last Stop Milky Way Taken at a junkyard in Fenwick NS location, Fenwick Nova scotia time, 10:00 pm camera make, Nikon z50 camera settings iso 3200 45sec exposure F2.8 lens, 7.5mm fisheye total exposure time 45sec processing steps Adobe raw, photoshop.WF-02Waning crescent Moon with earthshine and Venus The image of the waning crescent Moon (6.7% illuminated) is overexposed in order to show earthshine. Below and to the right is Venus. Captured at 4:30 am on 26 June 2022 at York Redoubt National Historic Site, NS, looking across the harbour. Equipment consisted of a tripod-mounted Canon Rebel T3i DSLR on manual at ISO-400 with 55mm-250mm Canon lens at 55 mm and f/6.3; 1-second exposure. A single exposure was captured in RAW format. PhotoScape X was used for noise reduction. Photoshop CS2 was used to tweak clarity, contrast, and color in the final imageWF-03Worship the Heavens Milky Way and Grand Pré Church. July 4th, 2022 at 10pm. Grand Pré, NS. Nikon D750 + Nikkor 24-120mm ƒ4 ED @ 32mm + Move shoot move tracker 2 images. 1 Sky and 1 foreground Sky: 32mm, ƒ4, 98 seconds, ISO 2500 Foreground: 32mm, ƒ4, 13 seconds, ISO 100 Images exposure blended in photoshop and post-processed in LightroomWF-04Orion Constellation November 4th, 2022 at 1:30am. St. Croix, NS. Nikon D750 + Sigma 85mm ƒ1.4 + Move Shoot Move tracker Light frames - 54x 30second @85mm, ƒ1.4, ISO 640 (27 minutes total integration) Calibration Frames (18 Dark and 18 Bias) Images processed (combined) in ASTAP Combined image processed in Photoshop and LightroomPEOPLES'S CHOICE AWARD WINNER Jason DainWF-05Comet C2023 A3 and the Milky Way East Hants, NS - October 20, 2024 8-9pm. Nikon D850a with Sigma 14mm f/1.8 Art Lens on iOptron Skyguider Pro. Sky is 6x30s tracked shots at f/2, ISO1600 and foreground is untracked 30s f/2, ISO 1600. Sky shots stacked in Sequator and combined with long exposure foreground in Adobe Photoshop.WIDE FIELD AWARD WINNER Jeremy KuzubWF-06Shields Down! Auroral arc and Milky Ways during the Kp8 April 24, 2023 geomagnetic storm. Martinique Beach, Nova Scotia April 24, 3:23AM ADT (06:23UTC) Sony A7 III, ISO3200, 13second exposures, Laowa 15mm f/2.0 at f/2.0, Ball-head tripod, 10 images to form a panoramic, so 13s*10 = 130 seconds, Processing steps: Using Affinity Photo 2: 1. Stitching of out-of-camera JPGs, 2. unwarp to account for tripod skew, 3. global RGB curves adjustment, 4. global Saturation adjustment, 5. sharpening using global wide radius unsharp mask, 6. Gamma adjustment using Soft Light blend mode overlay of guassian blurred greyscale version of imageWF-07Aurora, Samsung Galaxy S24, 10 sec, ISO 400, f2.2.WF-08Full Harvest Moon at York Redoubt The full Harvest Moon is shown rising above the Atlantic Ocean. Captured at 7:54 pm on 20 September 2021 at at York Redoubt National Historic Site, NS. Equipment consisted of a tripod-mounted Canon T3i DSLR on manual at ISO-200 with 55mm-250mm Canon lens at 90mm and f/9; 5-second exposure. A single exposure was captured in RAW format and converted to TIFF format using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional. Photoshop and Microsoft Photo were used to tweak clarity, contrast, highlights, and shadows in the final image.WF-09 Northern Lights and Perseid Meteor Halifax, NS - August 15, 2024. Nikon z8 with Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2, 3sec, ISO 3200.WF-10Aurora Over Abbey Ridge This is the Aurora over the newly resurrected Abbey Ridge Observatory. There were several people in attendance, including Judy and Jerry Black. While Judy and Jerry were off at the Look Off overlooking big lake, I went back to the observatory and captured this image from the upper parking lot at Stargaze Nova Scotia, Big Lake, Nova Scotia, 8:24pm on October 11th 2024. This was a Sony A7Siii camera with standard lens, tripod, F/3.5, 6 second exp. processed in Adobe Camera Raw.WF-11A Rare treat The Northern lights aurora borealis taken from a simple iPhone in urban Halifax. Very rarely do we get to see such spectacular colours dancing right here in the city of Halifax. This image was imaged with an iPhone 15 about 730 in the evening just after we finished visiting the farmers market.WF-12Aurora _Borealis on 2024-10-10 The Northern lights or Aurora Borealis taken using a Nikon Z7 single frame 20 sec. at the StargazeNS site on the evening of October 10, 2024. Processed in Lightroom and Preview.
Solar System
SOLAR SYSTEM AWARD WINNER David HoskinSS-01Petavius crater Petavius is one of the large impact craters that make up the “Gang of Four”. Petavius, located on the southeast side of the Moon, is 177 kilometers wide. Petavius has a prominent central mountain massif, extensively terraced walls, and an external network of ridges and furrows. Sinuous rilles extend across the crater’s floor, the most impressive of which is Rimae Petavius, which runs in a more or less straight line from the central mountains to the southwestern inner wall of Petavius. Rima Petavius, a fault feature formed by crustal tension, gives Petavius the appearance of a clock face with its hour hand at the 8 o’clock position. Captured at 9:13 pm on 20 November 2021 at Halifax, NS. Equipment consisted of a Celestron C8 200mm f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with a 2X Barlow, SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro mount, and a ZWO ASI290MM CMOS camera (gain 200, 0.78-millisecond exposures, MONO16/SER format) with an IR 850nm pass filter at prime focus. SharpCap was used to capture 1005 frames of video. The best 10% of video frames were selected and stacked with AutoStakkert 3. Registax 6 was used for wavelets. Levels, sharpness, contrast, highlights and shadows were tweaked using Photoshop CS2 and Microsoft Photo.SOLAR SYSTEM AWARD WINNER David Hoskin SS-02Total solar eclipse photo montage This is a montage of photographs obtained during the 8 April 2024 solar eclipse, from beginning to end. Images were captured in RAW format on 8 April 2024 at Rogersville NB, beginning at the start of the partial phase at 2:12 pm and continuing every 3 to 5 minutes until the end of the eclipse at 5:42 pm (clockwise from bottom centre; middle is a long exposure photograph at totality showing the corona). Equipment consisted of a Canon T3i DSLR on manual with a Canon 50-250mm lens fitted with a solar filter, all mounted on a SkyWatcher Star Adventurer tracking mount. Exposures at 250mm, f/8, ISO-100 ranged from 1/800 second to 1/50 second, depending on the phase of the eclipse. Images were captured in RAW format and converted to TIFF format using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional. False color was added to images of the partial phase using Photoshop.SS-03Moon from Urban HalifaxThis photo taken of the moon was taken in light polluted Fairview in Halifax NS in October 2024 after long period of not doing any astrophotography. I was gifted a lovely smart telescope. The S50 mainly helps with my mobility issues and also my time management as I don’t have to set up the scope for 30 minutes before hand and I can do it all early on in the evening so I actually have time to enjoy this wonderful hobby. ZWO SeeStar S50SS-04Solar Eclipse Corona Earthshine from the Miramichi - April 8, 2024. Nikon z8 with Nikon 180-600mm lens f/8 1/2000th of a second to 8 seconds blended and processed in Photoshop.SS-05Comet 12/P Pons Brooks Halifax - April 1, 2024. Nikon z6ii with Nikon 180-600mm lens f/6.3 on iOptron Skyguider Pro. 20x30s, f/6.3, ISO3200. Processed in Pixinsight.SS-06Comet-C2023-A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS taken from the Swiss Air Memorial on Friday October, 18th, 2024 showing an anti-tail. Nikon D600 on a fixed tripod. 116@4 sec (7.73 min) ISO 3200 Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504] Nikor 400 mm lens at 100 mm focal length. Images taken using Nikon internal intervalometer Swiss Air Flight 111 Memorial, Nova Scotia. 2024-10-18 PixInsight Processing: WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script, GraXpert, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, HistogramTransformation, CurvesTransformation.
Deep-Sky
DS-01Wizard Nebula This is NGC 7380, the Wizard Nebula. Imaged at Hall's Harbour, NS, on 26 and 29 Oct, 2022, with an Atik 383L+ camera and Astrodon filters (5nm Ha, 5nm Oiii, red, green, blue), through an Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian on an iOptron CEM-60 mount. Exposure times were: 8x 900s Ha, 12x600s Ha, 22x900s Oiii, 20x 120s red, 10x 120s green, 10x 120s blue, for a total of 10h50m. The nebula was processed as an HOO image, with RGB stars.DS-02Soul Nebula Pillars This is part of emission nebula Sh2-199, the Soul Nebula. The image is a close-up of some gust and gas pillars created by the stellar wind and radiation pressure from the cluster of bright stars at the top of the frame. Imaged at Hall's Harbour, NS, on 21 and 22 Oct, 2022, with an Atik 383L+ camera and Astrodon filters (5nm Ha, 5nm Oiii, red, green, blue), through an Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian on an iOptron CEM-60 mount. Exposure times were: 18x600s Ha, 8x900s Oiii, 10x 120s red, 10x 120s green, 10x 120s blue, for a total of 6h00m. The nebula was processed as an HOO image, with RGB stars.DS-03The Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27) The Dumbbell Nebula is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Vulpecula. The central star is a white dwarf with a radius that is among the largest known for a white dwarf. Captured on the night of 13 July 2023 at Halifax, NS. Equipment consisted of a Celestron 150mm XLT f/5 reflector telescope with Baader coma corrector, SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro mount (PHD2-guided using a 50mm f/4 guide scope) and a ZWO ASI533MC Pro CMOS camera with an L-eNhance filter. SharpCap (gain 110, RAW16/FITS format) was used to capture 10-minute lights and calibration frames. DeepSkyStacker was used to debayer and stack 14 10-minute subs, 20 darks, 40 flats, 40 dark flats, and 40 bias frames. GraXpert was used to remove gradients and SiriL was used for photometric color calibration. Photoshop CS2 with Astronomy Tools Action Set was used to adjust levels, stretch data, increase saturation, and remove noise. StarNet++ was also used during post processing. Microsoft Photo was used to tweak contrast, highlights, and shadows in the final image.DS-04The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565) or Caldwell 38, ZWO 533 MC Pro Camera with a Meade LX200 Classic, Skywatcher EvoStar 80mm, Orion StarShoot Autoguider using PHD2, Adobe Photoshop Express Capture Software: N.I.N.A. April 24, 25th, 2024 172 - 60 second exposures,Processing Software: PixInsight, PhotoShop Express.DS-05The Pinwheel Galaxy (NGC 5457) or Messier 101, ZWO 533 MC Pro Camera with a Meade LX200 Classic, Skywatcher EvoStar 80mm, Orion StarShoot Autoguider using PHD2, Adobe Photoshop Express Capture Software: N.I.N.A. April 24, 25th, 2024 172 - 60 second exposures,Processing Software: PixInsight, PhotoShop Express.DS-06Veil Nebula Complex consisting of the Western Veil (Caldwell 34), the Eastern Veil (Caldwell 33), and Pickering’s Triangle. The Veil Nebula Complex is a supernova remnant located in the constellation Cygnus. Captured over 3 nights (August 12,13,16) at Halifax, NS. Equipment consisted of a William Optics RedCat 51 f/4.9 apochromatic refractor, SkyWatcher EQ6R mount and a ToupTek ATR2600C CMOS camera with an Optolong L-eNhance filter. SharpCap (gain 100, RAW16/FITS format) was used to capture 8-minute lights and calibration frames. DeepSkyStacker was used to debayer and stack 39 8-minute subs, 20 darks, 40 flats, 40 dark flats, and 40 bias frames. GraXpert was used to remove gradients. SiriL was used for photometric color calibration. Photoshop CS2 with Astronomy Tools Action Set was used to adjust levels, stretch data, increase saturation, and remove noise. Microsoft Photo was used to tweak clarity, contrast, highlights, and shadows in the final image.DS-07WR134 48 hrs of 180s (RGB) and 600s (Ha/Oiii) subs from my Bortle 4/5 Backyard in Halifax. Skywatcher Esprit 120 ED APO with a ZWO ASI 294MM Pro, Starfield 50mm guide scope with ZWO ASI290MM guide camera, Optolong HaOiiiRGB Filter, Skywatcher EQ6R-Pro, Flats and flat darks. ASIAIR Pro, Pegasus Power Box, ZWO EAF and EFW. The selected images were pre-processed and processed using PixinsightDS-08CED 51 17 hrs of 180s (LRGB) and 600s (Ha) subs from my Bortle 4/5 Backyard in Halifax. Skywatcher Esprit 120 ED APO, ZWO ASI 294MM Pro, Starfield 50mm guide scope with ZWO ASI290MM guide camera,Optolong HaLRGB Filter, Skywatcher EQ6R-Pro. Flats and flat darks. ASIAIR Pro, Pegasus Power Box, ZWO EAF and EFW. The selected images were pre-processed and processed using PixinsightDS-09NGC2244 and the Rosette Nebula The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is an H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. 3x20 min. ISO 3200 Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504], 120mm Skywatcher Esprit on a Celestron CGX mount, Guiding using ZWO ASI224MC using Phd2, Kstars on MeLe Quieter 3C Controller, Triad Quad Ultra Filter, Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia. 2023-02-27 Processed in PixInsight: Dynamic Background Extractor BlurXTerminator NoiseXTerminator ScreenTransfer Stretch StarXTerminator, CurvesTransformation, PixelMath.DEEP SKY WINNER Jerry BlackDS-10NGC 2175 Monkey Head Nebula) is an H II emission nebula located in the constellation Orion. 55@1200 sec (18.33 hours), ISO 3200, Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504], Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length, Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter, Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope, Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone),Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia. 2022-03-27 and earlier sessions,PixInsight Processing: WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script, Dynamic Crop, Dynamic Background Extraction, Image Solver Script, SpectrophotometricColorCalibration, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch, BlurXTerminator, CurvesTransformation.
