Astrophotographers Get Published and Featured Online
Work by members of the AAA Astrophotography group have been featured recently in various publications. Maggie Machinsky had one of her photos selected by National Geographic with 14 others as a possible recipient of the “People’s Choice” Award in their 2018 photo contest. Viewers voted on-line and supporters from AAA cast their ballots. Alas, Maggie lost out to another photo. Here is her submission: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/contests/photo-contest-2018/gallery/peoples-choice-all/13/
It can also be seen on her Instagram account @photo.gypsea
Chirag Upreti had an image taken during a trip last year to the Canary Islands in the Reader Gallery section of the December Astronomy Magazine. Here’s his description:
“The Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) is situated at an altitude of nearly 2400 meters above sea level on the Spanish island of La Palma. This location is home to an array of advanced telescopes including the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), with a primary mirror of 3.58m, of the national facility of the Italian astronomical community. Its dome structure is quite unique and photogenic. While we had permission for the night to stay on the facility, to get to this location required quite a decent hike since the road is closed for cars after dark to avoid car head lights from shining onto the different telescope mirrors.
While I was taking the images, the telescope was active as the dome was slewing every few minutes. The night sky here is incredible, quite dark and very transparent at least for this particular night. The Lagoon Nebula and the Dark Horse Nebula could be made easily discerned with peripheral vision of the naked eye.”
On Instagram Chirag is @tinchu_chi.
Dan Sullivan has two photos in a recent book called “The Universe Today Ultimate Guide to Viewing the Cosmos: Everything You Need to Know to Become an Amateur Astronomer”, by David Dickinson with Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today.
One image is his “fire escape M42”, the Orion Nebula photographed from his Brooklyn apartment fire escape, where he gets a clear view of the nebula and constellation. The other is a striking photo of M31, the Andromeda Nebula taken from his parent’s house in Connecticut.
Dan says, “Fraser Cain from Universe Today reached out to me on Instagram to post a series of images on his Instagram account. He DM’d me a few months later asking for high res images that might get selected for the book, and offered to pay for each one selected . Two wound up getting selected and I actually received $275 which went directly into my astrophotography fund :)”
You can see more @dansullivan .
Stan Honda had his eighth Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) on November 10 with a photo of a thin crescent moon (titled by the APOD editors as “The Old Moon in the Young Moon’s Arms”) setting over the Very Large Array radio telescope installation in New Mexico. He shot it during a trip to the Enchanted Skies Star Party in Magdalena. See it at https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181110.html
And see Stan’s Instagram @stanhonda.
For more pictures of the Astrophotography group on Instagram see @aaany_astrophotography or the AAA Astrophotography YouTube channel.
