Michael O'Connell Wins Astrophotography Competition!

Michael O'Connell's lovely daytime moon image first in his category " Our Solar System "
at the Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards in Greenwich Observatory tonight.

Congratulations Micheal

I don't have any tech details of the image , perhaps Michael will
add them when he returns from London.


www.newscientist.com/gallery/nmm-astronomer-of-year
Other images in the competition in the link above.

Deirdre Kelleghan

Outreach Coordinator IFAS
www.irishastronomy.org/
www.deirdrekelleghan.com/
twitter.com/skysketcher

Michael O'Connell recently entered the "Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2009" - a competition organised by The Royal Observatory Greenwich.

The competition consisted of three main categories:

1. Earth and Space
2. Our Solar System
3. Deep Space

Judges selected an overall winner, one runner up and three highly commended entries from each category. There were also prizes for an "Overall Winner" and a "Young Astronomy Photographer".

Michael's image, entitled "Blue Sky Moon", was an unusual picture of the Moon, our closest Celestial Object. The Moon is a familiar sight to us all but Michael's image was different - simple, well composed and framed, of outstanding quality and the difference being the blue sky background. Overall, a very worthy winner.

The image won the category prize for "Our Solar System" and has Michael has landed himself just about enough to cover the price of his Radio Astronomy aerial...

I'm sure you will all join me in congratulating Michael - firstly for a quintessential lunar image and secondly, for having it judged as the "Our Solar System" image of the year 2009. It is a great honour for Michael and yet another example, dare I say it, of Irish Astronomy punching well above its weight.

Furthermore, as well as a few quid for his troubles, Michael's image will form part of an exhibition which will be on display in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich until the 10th January 2010. And even better, it will be used on postcards for sale in the Royal Observatory shop.

We mustn't forget that John Murphy's image of the Seven Sisters was also a shortlisted image of excellent quality - congratulations John!

Dave


The winning images can be seen here. *

And Michael's image here.

There is also an article, with the ten shortlisted images on the Sky News website here.

* as of writing this post, the site has not yet been updated - but will soon.

Holy cow!!
Congrats Michael.
Its a fab shot indeed.
( handy few quid twords the radio gear eh!)
Well done!!!

The winners have been formally announced here: www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/astronom...olar-system/#panel-1

What competition judge Damian Peach thought: ‘It is a simple idea yet beautifully executed and processed. It is a great image to have as a reminder of the Apollo landings.’

Praise indeed!

By the way, note that the winner of the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2009 is Paul Smith from Ireland - does anybody know who Paul Smith is? If you're watching Paul - this is fantastic news and a massive congratulations from all at IFAS for a tremendous achievement. If you could get in touch, that would be brilliant.

Dave

Great stuff Michael
out of curiosity, what were the prizes ?

Dave_Lillis wrote:

out of curiosity, what were the prizes ?

You Michael's newest best mate? Tough - I got there first

If you look through the links above, I'm sure you'll find it... He won't be buying Dave G's AP1200 though...