2023 Southern Hemisphere Public Vote

It’s not often you get such a high quality selection of astrophotography in one place, so it can only mean it’s the nPAE Southern Hemisphere 2023 Public Vote!

This is where the great astronomy public get to choose who wins the bragging rights for being the favourite astrophoto in the competition.

The final 11 are listed below. Congratulations to everyone who participated. There is some real inventiveness on display here both in stylisation and selection of targets.

In country alphabetical order, here are your 11 options!

Claudio: NGC3603

Claudio from Argentina enters his Statue of Liberty Nebula. Equipment used: Ioptron Cem 120  Mount, Takahashi FSQ 106 telescopes, Starlight Express 814 monochrome camera, astrodon filters 3 Nm HA, OIII, SIII and RGB for the stars. Processed with Pixinsight.

Gabriel: DNA of the universe!

Gabriel from Argentina enters his “DNA of the universe!” Utilising an impressive equipment stack and what must be every feature in Pixinsight. Full list below!

The Equipment used:

    – Telescope: Skywatcher ESPRIT 100ED

    – Mount: Skywatcher EQ6R-Pro

    – Mains Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro monochrome; Gain 139, offset 21, sensor temperature -15°C

    – Guidescope: 60x240mm

    – Guide Camera: Touptek G3M monochrome

    – Filterweel: ZWO 36mm

Imaging Target: NGC5128 (Centaurus A Galaxy)

Digital processing methods employed (if any): I used Pixinsight

   1- Aling 4 channels.

   2- Dynamic crop 4 channels.

   3- Channel R.

      3.1- NoiseXterminator with Denoise=0,7.

      3.2- Linear fit with G as ref.

   4- Channel G.

      4.1- NoiseXterminator with Denoise=0,7.

      4.2- DBE (I began the acquisition with this channel, and the object was below 30°, so was affected by the light pollution due to a big city toward that place).

   5- Channel B.

      5.1- NoiseXterminator with Denoise=0,7.

      5.2- Linear fit with G as ref.

   6- Combination RGB channels.

      6.1- Channelcombination (images in linear state)

      6.2- BlurX, with Automatic PSF.

      6.3- Stretch with HT applying many times using masks.

      6.4- ABE (by default).

   7- Working in luminance.

      7.1- NoiseXterminator with Denoise=0,5.

      7.2- Script PSFImage to read the PSF value.

      7.3- BlurX, with PSF diameter=3,66 (value obtained in point 7.2).

      7.4- Stretch with HT applying many times using masks.

      7.5- LHE with mask (radius=160, contrast= 1.6, amount=0,5)

      7.6- HDRMT with mask (Layer=8, Scaling=Gaussian 7, To Lum= on)

   8- LRGB Combination, RGB of point 6.4 and L of point 7.6 (by default).

      8.1- SCNR

      8.2- ABE (by default)

      8.3- HT (just a little)

      8.4- CurvesT (S curve)

      8.5- NoiseXterminator (denoise=0.67)

      8.6- ColorSaturation

      8.7- Script DarkStructureEnhance

German: M16

German from Argentina presents his photo of The Pillars of Creation. Using an 8” GSO Ritchey Cretien with QHY 163M CAMERA and ANTLIA 7nm narrow band filters. Guided with a QHY5IIm and Starguider 140mm.

Hugo: NGC6164

Hugo, a previous Southern Hemisphere winner and nPAE World Champion from Argentina has entered his “A Jewel Among Cotton” NGC6164 nebula. Taken with a Meade Series 6000 130 APO, iOptron CEM70 mount, and QHY 168 M Pro camera with Ha, OIII Astrodon 3 nm filters. Processed in Pixinsight.

Nik: Dragons of Ara

The first entry from Australia is from Nik with The Dragons Of Ara. The quipment used was an Askar FRA 300pro telescope, ZWO 533mc Pro camera with ASIAIR all on a Skywatcher neq3 mount. The filters for this image was an Optolong L-Ultimate.

Rodney: Crux

Our second Australian entry is from Rodney who was also the Southern Hemisphere winner in 2022. Entering this time with a classic Southern Cross image. Taken with Ha and RGB filters with a Canon EF200mm lens and ZWO ASI6200 full frame CMOS camera. All calibration, integration and post processing was completed in Pixinsight v1.8.9.

Breno: NGC3576

Breno from Brazil shows us his The Statue of Liberty nebula. Taken with a Sky-Watcher ESPRIT 120, CEM60 mount and Zwo Asi 2600MC. Processed using PixInsight. Breno gets a special mention for being this year’s first entry received!

Hugo: Eclipse

Also from Brazil, Hugo enters his Ferris Wheel Eclipse, which is formed by the Roda Rico wheel in São Paulo and the sun! Very creative! Taken with a Nikon D90 + 100-300mm Nikkon Lens + 6-stop ND filter + Manfrotto Tripod.

Boris: Centro Galactico

The originals just keep giving! Here Boris from Chile, the first Southern Hemisphere winner and first nPAE World Champion, enters his “Centro Galactico”. Taken on a Canon t8i with Tokina 11-16 lens at 16mm mounted on an iOptron smart cube this is 10 45 second images stacked in Sequator and edited in lightroom.

Bill: M16

Bill from the USA takes advantage of the overlap between the geographic and celestial equator to produce his image “Pillars of Creation”. Using a Celestron C1100, Celestron CGE Pro Mounted on a pier. ASI294MM, ZWO EAF, ZWO EFW, ZWO 36mm 7nm SHO Filters. Antares 6.3 Focal reducer. Stacked and processed in Pixinsight with Topaz Noise Reduction.

Gerald: M17

Gerald from South Africa enters “The Omega Nebula” using this equipment stack: ZWO ASI294MM Pro, AT127EDT triplet refractor, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount, ASI290MM mini mono guide camera and an Orion 60mm Guide scope. Stacked and processed in PixInsight. Gerald processed the narrowband images starless and then combined them in the SHO Hubble pallet. Then separately captured RGB stars were added back as the last stage of processing. Clever!

Tell us why you made your selection in the comments below.

What is your favourite 2023 Southern Hemisphere Image?

141 ( 11.29 % )

242 ( 19.38 % )

100 ( 8.01 % )

9 ( 0.72 % )

70 ( 5.6 % )

7 ( 0.56 % )

3 ( 0.24 % )

362 ( 28.98 % )

1 ( 0.08 % )

240 ( 19.22 % )

74 ( 5.92 % )

Results Vote

Back

The Public Vote Winner will be announced on the 27th September and the judges decisions on the Southern Hemisphere Winner and runners up on the 30th September 2023.