Southern Hemisphere astrophotography competition opens to public

nPAE has announced the public voting phase for its 2024 Southern Hemisphere Astrophotography Competition, offering enthusiasts an opportunity to select the best from nine exceptional entries. Each of these final images showcases the unique talent, skill, and dedication of astrophotographers who have meticulously captured celestial wonders from the Southern Hemisphere, using a range of high-quality equipment and imaging techniques.

Southern Hemisphere astrophotography competition opens to public

The first entry is from Ali, based in Australia, with a stunning depiction titled "The fish and the bull skull." This image showcases the supernova remnant G296.5+10, also known as ESO 217-25. Captured with a Founder Optics 106 F6 triplet telescope and a ZWO 2600mm Pro camera, the image took over 27 hours to create, utilizing Ha and O3 filters. The final product was processed in PixInsight as an HOO image.

Jonathon, also from Australia, presents "Kitty hiding in Eta Carinae," an image taken with an Svbony sv605 mono camera and Svbony 102ed scope. His 4.2-hour exposure of the region was processed using the SHO palette, incorporating software such as NINA and PHD2 to assist with the capture and PixInsight for post-processing.

Another Australian astrophotographer, Rod, enters the competition with “Mystical Heart of the Eagle.” This image was taken with a Celestron Ultima 9-1/4 telescope from the 1990s, combined with modern ZWO ASI2600MM Pro cameras and Antlia S+H+O filters. Processed using PixInsight in the Hubble palette, this entry reflects the enduring quality of both classic and contemporary equipment.

AU Rodney Dragons Egg

Rodney, a previous Southern Hemisphere stage winner from Australia, has contributed a four-panel mosaic of the NGC6188, also known as the Dragons of Ara. Captured using a QSI 683 CCD camera, Tak TSA120 OTA, and Astronomik filters, this entry highlights the dedication involved in producing a large mosaic image. Post-processing was completed using PixInsight.

BR Lucas Milyway

From Brazil, Lucas brings a wide-field image of the Milky Way, captured with a Canon T5 and an 18-55mm lens. After taking 30 light frames and 10 dark and flat frames, the data was stacked in DSS and further edited in Photoshop to create the final image.

Carlos from Peru submitted an image of the Great Eta Carinae Nebula, taken with a Newton 800/200 f.4 telescope and a ZWO Asi 294mm Pro camera. This entry was processed using a variety of techniques in PixInsight, such as star alignment, noise reduction, and color enhancement, followed by final adjustments in Photoshop.

UK Kartik Wide field Carina Nebula

Kartik from the UK, during a vacation in New Zealand, captured a wide-field view of the Carina Nebula using a Nikon D750 with an AF-S Nikkor 85mm lens. Kartik stacked 200 images, each with a 10-second exposure, using ASTAP software and finished the processing in PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop.

Richard submitted a remote capture of the Fighting Dragons of Ara, imaged from Chile using a Takahashi Epsilon 180ED telescope and a ZWO ASI2600MM camera. His data, gathered over 8 hours and 10 minutes, was processed using StarTools.

Finally, Gerald from South Africa, a past Southern Hemisphere winner and current nPAE World Champion, enters his image titled "Carina’s Smile." Utilizing a ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera and an AT127EDT triplet refractor, this image was captured with narrowband filters, processed in PixInsight, and finalized in Lightroom Classic.

The public is invited to review these nine outstanding entries and cast their vote for the winner. nPAE encourages voters to consider each image carefully, as they only have one vote to contribute to this year's competition.

ZA Gerald Carinas Smile NGC3199