In July 2022, the Central West Astronomical Society held its annual astrophotography
competition. Amateur astronomers and photographers from around
Australia were invited to take part in the competition and to submit
their astrophotographs for consideration in the prestigious
"David Malin Awards".
This year's competition had eight categories:
Deep Sky
Wide-Field
Nightscapes
Solar System
Animated Sequences
Smartphone Astrophotography
Theme - "Alignments"
Junior (18 years old and younger)
The competition continued with the judging structure that was
introduced last year. In order to build on the experience of previous
years, and to continue as the premier competition of its kind in
Australia, a panel of distinguished Australian astrophotographers
judged the category entries. Dr David Malin judged the Overall
Winner from the list of these winners, as the best in show. We were
honoured that the judging panel included Phil Hart
and Alex Cherney, previous winners of the "David Malin
Awards", and of numerous other national and international astrophotography competitions.
The winners of the "David Malin
Awards" were presented with the "David Malin Awards", in
the presence of invited dignitaries, during the CWAS AstroFest
conference on Saturday, 23 July 2022.
It was not just technical skill that was awarded. The prizes went to
pictures that captured the beauty of the sky and the intrinsic interest
of astronomy in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Celestron Australia supported the
competition with prizes to the value of $10,000.
Mr Jeff Darmanin, a News Corp. Picture Editor, judged the "Photo Editor's Choice" awards and gave his pick from each category. His overall winner was awarded the Photo Editor's Choice Award.
Last year's exhibitions were a resounding success. The two parallel exhibitions were viewed by over 100,000 people Australia-wide.
This year's permanent exhibition will be on show at the CSIRO Parkes
Observatory's Visitor's Centre for one year. A
second touring exhibition, organised by the Museum of Applied Arts and
Sciences, will travel to selected venues, beginning in October.
To have received any one of these awards is a great honour. Congratulations!
Citation: "This is the finest image I have seen in this competition. It is simply
beautiful, and no more needs to be said. No sign of stitching, either."
Citation: "This is an unusual composition of a field
that is not often seen. The resolution is impressive and background stars are tiny and the brown dust cloud dominates the scene. It becomes a blue reflection nebula when stars are involved."
Citation: "This is a well-known field in the constellation of Ara, and it contains a wide range of objects and dynamic range. It's also very difficult to crop it so that it catches the eye. It has been widely photographed by amateurs, but this is the best I have seen in recent years. I particularly like the rendition of NGC 6164 and 6165 at lower right."
Citation: "Seen at full screen, this beautifully rendered panorama of the Moon almost
takes you there. I really like the texture and subtle detail on the
surface, and I can't fault it in any way."
Citation: "This is the best effort I have seen of a tracked image on a smartphone. While the resolution is relatively poor, as you might expect, the colours are very well captured, and an interesting foreground is well lit."
Citation: "This is a very good composition of this field where there's no outstanding
feature. The background is at a much better level than the Carina nebula,
and many more stars are seen."
Highly Commended - "Horsehead Nebula"
by Lachlan Wilson - Plus Photo Editor's Pick
Highly Commended - "Carina Nebula" by Lachlan Wilson
The Presentation Ceremony - 23 July 2022
The presentation of the 2022
CWAS "David Malin Awards" was held during the 2022 CWAS
AstroFest on Saturday, 23 July 2022. In attendance were the invited
dignitaries, the competition entrants, and the members of the Central West
Astronomical Society. The dignitaries included Parkes Mayor,
Cr Ken Keith; Dr David Malin; Dr John
Reynolds, Head of ATNF Operations; Tori Tasker, Senior Space
Technology Officer - Human Spaceflight, Australian Space Agency;
Blake Estes, itelescope.net Observatory Manager, Australia; Garry
Copper, President, Tamworth Regional Astronomy Club; Selena Simpson
- SunStudios; Colin Woods - MyPhotoClub.com.au.
AstroFest Guests L-R: Blake Estes, Garry Copper, Tori
Tasker, Selena Simpson, Cr Ken Keith, Dr David Malin, Dr John
Reynolds. Not Present: Colin Woods.
The competition represented entrants from every State and Territory of Australia (NSW, Qld,
Vic, SA, WA, Tas and ACT).
The overall winner of the 2022 CWAS "David Malin Awards" was Ian
Inverarity of South Australia, for his beautiful
image of "Old Giant in the Fog".
The quality of the images was a testament to the great skill and talent of Australian astrophotographers.
The very finest images will be exhibited in two parallel
exhibitions. The first will be on show at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory's Visitors
Centre for the entire year. The second
exhibition is organised by the Museum of Applied Arts and
Sciences and will tour Australia to selected venues, beginning in October 2022. Last year's exhibitions were a resounding success, with
over 200,000 people viewing the
exhibitions Australia-wide. As such, it is the largest photographic
exhibition in Australia, in terms of its reach and the number of visitations.
View the Online Presentation
The Category Winners
The category winners with Dr David Malin. L-R:
Stefan Buda (Solar System), Jarrod Andrews (Photo Editor's
Choice), Shaun Robertson (Deep Sky), Dr David Malin, Overall
Winner Ian Inverarity (Nightscapes), Lucy Yunxi Hu (Smartphone
Astrophotography), Lachlan Wilson (Junior), and Jong Lee (Theme -
"Alignments"). Not present: Jarrod Koh (Wide-Field), and David Gray (Animated Sequences).
All of the Awarded Photographers
The awarded photographers with David Malin. L-R:
Stefan Buda, Niall MacNeill, Kelvin Hennessy, Rohan Hinton, Jarrod
Andrews, Ed Hurst, Shaun Robertson, Dr David Malin, Ian
Inverarity, Joel Stafford, Lucy Yunxi Hu, Jong Lee, Lachlan
Wilson. Not present: Andy Casely, Rodney Watters, Paul Haese, Jarrod Koh, Joshua Rozells, and David Gray.
Celestron Australia supported the 2022 competition with prizes valued at $10,000. The prizes included:
The Astronomy 2023 Calendar featuring images from the 2023 CWAS "David
Malin Awards". Order here.
The 2023 Australasian Sky Guide
The winner of the cover competition for the "2023 Australasian
Sky Guide", produced by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, is
Paul Haese, for his image, "The Dragon's Lair".
Congratulations to all the winners!
Start preparing your astrophotos for the 2023 CWAS "David Malin Awards" and share with the wider public your enthusiasm for the
grandeur and beauty of astronomy.
The 2022 CWAS "David Malin Awards" was proudly supported by Celestron Australia and
Comments and Enquiries: John
Sarkissian of the AstroFest Organising Committee
