The finalists have been named in the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s annual ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. One of those photographs is provided above. It competed in the Skyscapes category, which is one of nine competition categories. The photo was taken at Cathedral Cove, Waikato, North Island, Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Here are a few words about this image from photographer Evan McKay:
On this particular night I only had a small window to capture the sky before the Moon started to rise, so I decided to make the most of it. I got my mount polar-aligned during twilight and then started shooting the sky panorama from this location. The Moon began to rise soon after I finished the sky, so I then captured the foreground. The moonlight gave me the best of both worlds and did a fantastic job lighting up the foreground. To enhance the sky, I shot a separate panorama using a dual narrowband filter and blended it in to bring out the nebulae.
The judges will announce the winners of the competition on September 17, with an event to follow the next day.
You call see all of the finalist photos at this competition link.
Our Awesome Universe 