Date: October 5, 2009
Title: Postcards from the Universe: Behind the scenes at the launch of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition
Podcaster: Will Gater, Graham Southorn, Chris Bramley, and Nick Howes
Organization: Sky At Night Magazine www.skyatnightmagazine.com
Description: March 2009 saw the launch of the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, a search for the finest amateur images of the night sky. The BBC’s Sky at Night Magazine is the official media partner for the competition. In early September we caught up with the judges and organizers at the launch of the ROG’s free exhibition, displaying the winning images. From stunning lunar landscapes to sweeping colourful nebulae this competition had it all. Join us as we go behind the scenes at this competition of cosmic proportions.
Bio: Sky at Night Magazine is the world’s only astronomy magazine and CD package. Each month we present the latest news from space, in-depth equipment reviews, astronomy features and a guide to the month’s night skies.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Clockwork Active Media Systems. Clockwork invents, designs, develops and maintains web applications that market, sell, streamline, automate and communicate. Visit clockwork dot net or email inquiries at clockwork dot net to get started on your web project.
Transcript:
Opening title music
Will Gater: Hello and welcome to the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast for the 5th of October, presented by the team at the BBC’s Sky At Night Magazine.
My name’s Will Gater. I’m the Staff Writer on the magazine, and joining me in the studio are Graham Southorn, the magazine’s editor, and Chris Bramley, the magazine’s deputy editor.
Now with this being the International Year of Astronomy we’re celebrating 400 years since the first telescopic observations of the night skies.
The very earliest astronomers recorded what they saw with drawings, paintings and detailed sketches, but today things are, naturally, much more advanced. Nowadays professional astronomers are using extremely sensitive CCD cameras in order to capture light from faint objects in the distant Cosmos.
Remarkably the technology used in modern day astronomical cameras isn’t so different from that found in the digital cameras used by amateur astronomers. Today using off-the-shelf equipment you can capture images of the night sky that far surpass, in resolution and detail, most professional images from 50 to 60 years ago.
So to celebrate amateur astrophotography the Royal Observatory Greenwich, at the start of this year, launched the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Graham can you tell us more about it?
Graham Southorn: Well Sky At Night Magazine helped out with media coverage and the judging. We helped to launch the competition back in February. It was to find the most spectacular images of the night sky taken by amateur astronomers all around the world. People could upload entries to a dedicated Flickr website and that meant that as the entries came in everybody could see them online.
Will Gater: And there were categories for different objects and themes weren’t there?
Graham Southorn: That’s right. There were four categories in total. Earth and Space was for photos that included a landscape or some other terrestrial object, like a roof or a chimney-top. Then there was the Our Solar System category for pictures of things like comets, planets, the Sun, and the Moon. Basically things close to Earth in the Universe. And the third category was Deep Space. Now this was for faint far-off things like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters.
Will Gater: So the sort of things that we’d need quite a large telescope to look at?
Graham Southorn: Yes, you would.
Will Gater: And there was also a special category for the young astrophotographers too, wasn’t there?
Graham Southorn: Yes – the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year was especially for entrants under the age of 16.
Will Gater: Now Graham, you and I were on the judging panel and we went down to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to do some judging a few weeks ago – what were your impressions of the images we saw on that day?
Graham Southorn: Well they were fantastic. The judging lasted a whole day, it was quite a long day, but I honestly never got tired of looking at them. There was just one amazing picture after another. Especially in the Deep Sky category. In Earth and Space as well – the pictures were very varied so there were lots of aurora shots, star trails, and things like the Moon hovering over historic buildings. Hats off to the under 16s as well because the pictures they took were better than I could do certainly.
Will Gater: Yeah they were fabulous. I remember quite a few of the judges saying that they would have liked to have taken some of the pictures there. So yeah, absolutely, brilliant, well done to them.
Now a few weeks ago we went back to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich for the opening of the exhibition where the winning images will be displayed. We got a sneak peak before it went on show to the public, and I caught up with Chris to talk about his views on the images.
Well we’re standing here in one of the courtyards at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and the winning images have actually just been announced. It’s really exciting, there was lots of ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ in the audience as the images came up. Chris, you and I have had a walk around the exhibition, what do you think of the images?
Chris Bramley: There was so much reaction from the audience because they were just stunning images. When you see them blown up, like you do in the exhibition, they really are quite breathtaking. The colours are particularly vivid. The ones in the Deep Space section, beautiful blues and greens of the deep space nebulae. Also there was an almost fluorescent green aurora shot from Canada in the Earth and Space section which was particularly breathtaking. And I also really liked the really detailed shot of Saturn.
Will Gater: There are some amazing colours in that.
Chris Bramley: That’s right, it’s just beautiful. It really captures the slightly muted oranges and reds that you can see on the Ringed Planet.
Will Gater: I think one of the things I really like about the exhibition is the way it has been presented. The images are actually back-lit on Perspex. And that really brings them to life. It gives them a vibrancy not normally seen on screens or even in print.
Chris Bramley: That’s right, it’s a really nicely set exhibition. It’s quite a dark room. So when you go in there the colours really come through on these transparent light boxes. There are some really interesting captions and comments from the people who actually took the photos. As well as being a really stunning visual show you learn quite a bit from it.
Will Gater: I think people will be fascinated at the sort of equipment that people are using to take these images. Some of the pictures, even in the Solar System category, were taken with quite basic amateur equipment but the results are absolutely incredible.
Chris Bramley: That’s right. One of the cases in point is in the Earth and Space section with the star-trails pictures. You see these fantastic shots of the stars that, instead of being points of light, are actually trails of light forming lines in the sky. And this is something you can’t really see with your eyes on an everyday evening. You actually need, not a lot of equipment, but you do need a basic camera that can take a long exposure. That’s all you need to take these stunning shots. And when you get a nice foreground, of a tree or something silhouetted against the stars, it really does make a fantastic shot.
Will Gater: Of course if you’re a skillful photographer you can take those beautiful shots. Just taking the image is part of the process. It’s processing as well and also framing the image and choosing which shot to take.
One of the things I really liked was the fact that the interactive display was showing pictures from everyone who had submitted images to the competition. That’s particularly important I think.
Chris Bramley: That’s a really good part of the exhibition actually. There’s a nice cinematic movie display in the interactive bit. There are some really nice entry points into it: you can see from which part of the world people have taken the shots (and it’s global coverage of these people who have sent their images in.) Or you can select what subject of the images you’d like to see. So even if you didn’t make the final cut, you are still going to be part of the exhibition.
Will Gater: The overall winner of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition was Martin Pugh with his stunning image of the Horsehead Nebula. Another of the images chosen for the exhibition was Nick Howes’ wonderful shot of Comet Holmes. I spoke to Nick at the exhibition opening night and asked him how he took it.
Nick Howes: Basically Comet Holmes was really bright in the sky a year or so back – really quite a good naked-eye comet in fact. Some of my next-door neighbours came round and I was showing them the comet, and I then decided to haul out the imaging equipment. I took about 20 minutes of images in total because the comet was moving so you can’t do really really long exposure photography. Then I just put it all together in Photoshop at the end of the night.
Will Gater: How does it feel to have your image featured in this competition?
Nick Howes: Humbling. Amazingly humbling, and very proud, and very honoured actually. Seeing some of the other images that have been featured I’m really staggered that I managed to get this far. I’m incredibly grateful, as well, but really humbled, it’s fantastic.
Will Gater: What do you think of some of the other images in the competition?
Nick Howes: Unbelievable. The overall winner, the Horsehead shot, is truly a spectacular image. Completely deserved, undoubtedly. But even some of the basic shots taken with simple equipment are really beautifully composed, really fantastic images. I really loved the under 16s category as well, some amazing images.
Will Gater: Do you have a favourite?
Nick Howes: My favourite image, I think, is probably Nick Smith’s image of the Moon. I’ve worked with Nick on some other projects in the past and I just love his work. I know how difficult it is to get images of that kind of quality, so that was a good one.
Will Gater: Well, if you want to see the pictures for yourself you can visit the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The exhibition opens on the 10th September and lasts until 10th January 2010. And best of all it’s free!
Graham Southorn: Well that’s it for our behind the scenes look at the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Look out for a special episode of the Sky At Night Magazine vodcast where you’ll be able to see the images in all their glory.
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365 Days of Astronomy
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the New Media Working Group of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow…goodbye.