The 2022 CWAS “David Malin Awards” submissions now open

Hello all,

The CWAS is proud to announce that submissions to this year’s CWAS “David Malin Awards” have now opened.

Submissions can be made via the submission page, here: https://cwasdma.myphotoclub.com.au/

Entries will close on Tuesday, 31 May 2022, at 24:00

The structure of this year’s competition is:

• General Section:
  • Wide-Field
  • Deep Sky
  • Solar System
  • Nightscapes
  • Animated Sequences
  • Smartphone Astrophotography
  • Open Themed Section – “Alignments”
• Junior Section (18 or younger) – One Open Category (can be of any astronomical subject)
• The “David Malin Innovation Prize” may be awarded, at Dr Malin’s discretion, for a striking astronomical image that shows exceptional imagination, innovation or an unusual approach in any of the categories.
• An additional prize, “The Photo Editor’s Choice”, will also be awarded. This will be judged by a major news organisation’s photo editor or editors.

For more detailed information, visit: https://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/astrofest/DMA/

PLEASE NOTE:

The Nightscapes is intended to showcase the increasing popularity and evolution of this relatively new genre of astrophotography, combining beautiful terrestrial foregrounds with a night sky scene – often in a single exposure (HDR is OK) or as a multi-shot panorama.

• NOTE 1: Any image that contains terrestrial foregrounds will be considered to be a nightscape image.
• NOTE 2: All entries must be images that faithfully reflect and maintain the scale and integrity of the subject. Image combinations and manipulations that grossly distort the intrinsic and relative brightness of a scene will be deemed ineligible. For example: a fixed tripod could be used to capture a foreground/landscape followed by star tracker exposure using the same camera/lens combination for the night sky exposure and create a combined image. It would not be acceptable however, to combine a landscape from a different location or taken during daylight or twilight then combine it with night sky image.

Smartphone Astrophotography is a new category for 2022. Today, smartphones are ubiquitous and some are capable of impressive low light-level photography. We are looking for images that have been taken with a smartphone of an astronomical scene that has some aesthetic appeal and/or that has captured something you might not expect to see from such a tiny camera.

The Open Themed Section is open to all astrophotographers. They are encouraged to see who can be the most inventive and creative in evoking the theme, which this year will be “Alignments”. The Universe is beautiful and in constant motion, and occasionally celestial bodies line up for us in a beautiful display. These astronomical alignments cover a wide range of possibilities in astrophotography. The most obvious are planetary alignments but other opportunities include alignments of bright objects with foreground features, such as trees, mountains, buildings etc. with the planets or the Moon, or a bright constellation. A reflection of a bright object over water is another example of the many possibilities. We are looking for the most imaginative and eye-catching examples that are also aesthetically pleasing and/or challenging.

Regards, John Sarkissian (OAM)
2022 CWAS “David Malin Awards”