Winners announced at CSIRO’s AstroFest David Malin space photo awards in Parkes, NSW

UNDER Australia’s iconic ‘Dish’ in central NSW the winners of Australia’s best space-themed photo competition were announced as part of CSIRO’s 2014 AstroFest.

Space photo winners out of this world

UNDER Australia’s iconic Parkes ‘Dish’ in central NSW the winners of Australia’s best space-themed photo competition were announced as part of CSIRO’s 2014 AstroFest over the weekend.

Take a look through some of this year’s short-listed entries and be prepared to be amazed.

The overall winner, Paul Haese from Adelaide, has had the hobby of space photography since he was nine-years-old playing around with his toy telescope shortly after the moon landing in 1969.

Haese’s image ‘Dust and Gas’ captures a giant cloud of cosmic dust as it stretches out across the solar system.

Celebrating some of the most incredible space photos you’re likely to see this year the 10th annual David Malin awards in Australia’s foremost space-research centre.

Blind-judged by David Malin, a celebrated British-Australian astronomer and photographer, the 200+ entries from some of Australia’s best space photography enthusiasts speak for themselves.

From moonrises over Australia’s capital cities to dust clouds in our outer galaxy the photos explore a range of space theme including the ‘deep sky’ to ‘the moon’ and ‘wide-field solar system’.

Operations Scientist John Sarkissian, who assisted with this year’s competition said that this year’s entrants were encouraged to push their own boundaries and it paid off.

“Just when you thought they couldn’t do any better, there they go. The results were amazing”

It’s not just a realm for space nerds with telescopes either, anyone from Australia can enter and the majority of cameras used in the competition were off-the-shelf DSLR cameras — although having the ability to hook it up to a high-end telescope doesn’t hurt!

And it seems space photography is no longer the final frontier for women: “This year we’ve seen again an increase in the number of female photographers entering and winning prizes”

Winners of this year’s awards will share in a prize pool worth around $18,000 and will have their work exhibited at the CSIRO visitor centre as well as in a touring exhibition run by Sydney’s Powerehouse Museum and Melbourne’s ScienceWorks.

The popular tour generally attracts visitors numbering around 200,000, this year’s exhibition and tour will begin at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory’s Visitor’s Centre from 20 July 2014. A second touring exhibition, organised by the Powerhouse Museum, will travel to selected venues, beginning with Sydney Observatory in August 2014.

Solar eclipse ... The 2014 Central West Astronomical Society AstroFest, David Malin Photography Awards: "Partial Solar Eclipse Sunset Series" by Stephen Mudge