2023 Southern Hemisphere Winners

As always it is with great pleasure that we announce the winners of the nPAE 2023 Southern Hemisphere Astrophotography Competition!

The Southern Hemisphere is harder to judge than the Northern, the entries are fewer because of the population difference but the targets are generally more elaborate.

As you saw from the final 11 and the public vote, all the contestants have achieved excellence and it’s almost a tragedy to have to select the 3 best.

In reverse order:

3rd Place – Winning a £50 nPAE Voucher – Breno from Brazil with The Statue of Liberty nebula

Taken with a Sky-Watcher ESPRIT 120, CEM60 mount and Zwo Asi 2600MC. Processed using PixInsight.

2nd Place – Winning a Theia Astro Imaging Filter Changer – Bill from the USA with Pillars of Creation

Taken with 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.

1st Place – Winning £200 – Gerald from South Africa with The Omega Nebula

Taken with a 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.

Congratulation to Gerald and all our contestants! Gerald’s The Omega Nebula now goes forward to compete for the nPAE 2023 World Champion. Voting opens on the 21st October.