(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 to-date. RASC Halifax members will be able to vote for their People's Choice favourite through a SurveyMonkey survey to be emailed separately. Note: with some internet browsers, hovering over the photo with your cursor will display the photo details. You may also be able to right-click on an image and view it in a separate tab/window to see a larger zoomable version.
Wide Field
![Image Title: Worship the Heavens Object: Milky Way and Grand Pré Church Capture Details: 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 Lightroom Worship the Heavens](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/WF%20Milky%20Way%20Grand%20Pr%20Church.jpg)
![Image Title: Orion Constellation Object: Orion constellation Capture Details: 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 Lightroom Orion Constellation](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/WF%20Orion%20Constellation.jpg)
![Waning 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 image. Waning Crescent Moon and Venus](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/WF%20Waning%20crescent%20Moon%20and%20Venus.jpg)
![Waning gibbous Worm Moon. The waning gibbous Worm Moon (99% illuminated) is shown peaking out between cloud banks.Captured at 11:19 pm on 18 March 2022 at Halifax, NS. Equipment consisted of a tripod-mounted Canon Rebel T3i DSLR on manual at ISO-100 with 55mm-250mm Canon lens at 100 mm and f/5.6; 1/8-second exposure. A single exposure was captured in RAW format and converted to TIFF format using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional. Photoshop CS2 and Microsoft Photo were used to tweak clarity, contrast, highlights, and shadows in the final image. Worm Moon Between Clouds](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/WF%20Worm%20Moon%20Between%20Clouds.jpg)
![Title: Last Stop Milky Way WF 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. Last Stop Milky Way](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/WF%20Last%20Stop%20Milky%20Way.jpg)
Solar System
![Solar Hydrogen Alpha. This is a hydrogen alpha image of an active area of the Sun. The image shows spicules, a major prominence, plage and a sunspot group. Captured at 2:12 pm on 28 August 2022 at Nova East (Smiley’s Provincial Park, NS). Equipment consisted of a Lunt 40mm f/10 dedicated solar telescope on an Explore Scientific iEXOS-100 mount, and a Player-One Apollo-M Mini CMOS camera (gain 95, 4.32-millisecond exposures, Mono16/SER format) at prime focus. SharpCap was used to capture 1066 frames of video. The best 10% of video frames were selected and stacked with AutoStakkert 3. IMPPG was used to adjust levels and sharpness. Color was added using Photoshop CS2. The portion of the image showing the Sun’s surface was inverted using Photoshop CS2 to enhance contrast. As a result, cooler areas like the sunspots are white while hotter areas are black. Solar Hydrogen Alpha](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/SS%20Solar%20Ha%20-%20Copy.jpg)
![Petavius 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. Petavius crater](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/SS%20Petavius%20crater%20-%20Copy.jpg)
Deep-Sky
![Messier 8 (Lagoon Nebula), Messier 20 (Trifid Nebula), and Messier 21 (Webb’s Cross). Messier 8 (on the right) is an emission nebula that contains an open star cluster (NGC 6530). Messier 20 (upper left) consists of an emission nebula, reflection nebula and dark nebulae. Messier 21 (on the extreme left) is an open star cluster. All are located in the constellation Sagittarius. Captured 1 September 2022 and 2 September 2022 at York Redoubt, NS. Equipment consisted of a William Optics RedCat 51 f/4.9 apochromatic refractor, Explore Scientific iEXOS-100 mount and a ZWO ASI183MC CMOS camera with an UV/IR cut filter. SharpCap (gain 220, RAW16/FITS format) was used to capture 2-minute lights and calibration frames. DeepSkyStacker was used to debayer and stack 42 2-minute subs, 20 darks, 40 flats, 40 dark flats, and 40 bias frames. 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. Messier 8 (Lagoon Nebula), Messier 20 (Trifid Nebula), and Messier 21 (Webb’s Cross)](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/DS%20M8M20M21%20-%20Copy.jpg)
![The Tulip Nebula (Sharpless 101). The Tulip Nebula (Sharpless 101) is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus. The nebula is about 70 light years across and 8,000 light years from Earth. Captured over 2 nights (14 and 15 March) 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 8-minute lights and calibration frames. ImagesPlus was used to debayer and stack 20 8-minute subs, 20 darks, 40 flats, 40 dark flats, and 40 bias frames. 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. ImagesPlus was used for star reduction. Microsoft Photo was used to tweak clarity, contrast, highlights, and shadows in the final image. The Tulip Nebula (Sharpless 101)](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/DS%20Sharpless%20101%20-%20Copy.jpg)
![Title: Soul 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. Soul Nebula Pillars](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/DS%20Soul%20Nebula%20Pillars.jpg)
![Title: Wizard 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. Wizard Nebula](/images/astrophotography/contests/2023/DS%20Wizard%20Nebula.jpg)