Our Breathtaking Cosmos: New Zealand Astrophotography Winners Announced

The New Zealand Astrophotography Competition showcases and recognizes some of the most stunning images of the southern hemisphere’s night sky. This year, photographers from across New Zealand have captured some incredibly breathtaking skyscapes such as amazing auroras, stunning images of our Solar System, and deep-sky marvels.

Universe Today was proud to be part of this year’s competition, as our own Fraser Cain was one of the judges.

The overall winner in the competition is a gorgeous view of the Aurora Australis, above, by photographer Tom Rae. Rae said he captured this image during the “once in a lifetime” geomagnetic storm in May of 2024, showing the Milky Way arching over the dramatic landscape of Aoraki Mount Cook National Park. This image also won the “Aurora” category.

The other categories in the competition include Deep Sky, Solar System, Dark-Sky Places, Timelapse, and new this year are Smartphone Images and a People’s Choice Award, chosen by the public.

There’s also a Nightscape category, and the winner –again — for this category is Tom Rae, showing the bowed Milky Way over a sharp ridge in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.

“This image is one of my biggest astrophotography accomplishments to date,” Rae explained on NZ Astrophotography Competition website, “and the largest panorama I’ve ever captured, with the full resolution image containing over a billion pixels from 62 images stitched together.”

Deep Sky

NZ astrophotographer Rolf Wahl Olsen is no stranger to Universe Today readers, as we’ve featured several of his photos for years. Olsen outdid himself with this deep sky photo of Eta Carinae.

“This is the first amateur image of light echoes from the 19th-century Great Eruption of Eta Carinae,” Olsen explained. “These light echoes have been detected by the Hubble Space Telescope and from large observatories such as the CTIO 4m telescope, but this is the first time that amateur images reveal these transient features.

Olson said his other first amateur detection of light echoes from supernova SN1987a inspired an attempt to try looking for the fainter echoes near Eta Carinae. You can read more about this effort on the NZ Astrophotography website and also at Olsen’s website.

Solar System

Navaneeth Unnikrishnan captured this stunning view of the full disk of the Sun. Using an H-alpha filter reveals the Sun’s dynamic surface and massive prominences. “A reminder of the incredible power and beauty just beyond our skies,” said Unnikrishnan.

Dark Sky

Abby Keith captured this stunning dark sky photo while on a five-day hike in New Zealand’s in Fiordland National Park. The view shows Lake Mackenzie, a sub-alpine lake on the Routeburn Track, which is one of New Zealand’s Great Walks.  

This panoramic image consists of 16 images for the foreground and 38 images for the sky.

“This image is the hardest one I’ve had to work for,” Keith explained. Carrying a 20-plus kg pack was worth it, however, as there were perfect conditions to capture this view.

Smartphone

This image was was also taken during the famous geomagnetic storm of May 12, 2024. Griffin called it “one of the most epic auroral storms I have ever seen. As my main digital cameras snapped away, I decided to see what my Iphone could do; I was blown away by the results!”

So are we! For more great astrophotos, check out Griffin’s website.

People’s Choice

New this year for this competition is the People’s Choice Award, where after short-list winners were announced, online voting was opened for the public to choose their favorite images. This beautiful and heartfelt image is definitely worthy of being a favorite. You can see more of Birley’s images on Instagram.

Timelapse

This breathtaking timelapse shows mountains rotating against the backdrop of the stars, instead of the usual view of the stars moving. This work was submitted by Last Quarter Photography on YouTube.

You can see all the winners, runners-up and highly commended images and videos at the NZ Astrophotography Competition website.

New Zealand Astrophotography Competition This is New Zealand’s leading annual astrophotography competition and it is run jointly by the Royal Astronomy Society of New Zealand (RASNZ) and the Auckland Astronomical Society. Along with Fraser Cain, the other judges this year were Judy Schmidt  — another name well-known to Universe Today readers for her imaging editing and cosmic creativity, and Dylan O’Donnell who operates the YouTube channel “Star Stuff.” 

Below is a video of all the short-list entries from this year’s competition.