Australia has some very very talented amateur astrophotographers, producing images that are among the best in the world. Our beautiful dark skies, combined with the stunning objects visible in the Southern Hemisphere, give Australian Astrophotographers a bountiful choice of targets on which to produce their inspiring work.

I wanted to feature and profile these brilliant individuals and showcase their best or their favourite images by compiling my Top 10 Best Astrophotographers in Australia.

The Horsehead Nebula by Greg Bradley, one of the Top 10 Best Astrophotographers in Australia

Please continue reading to find out the criteria I used for selection, to see who made the top 10, and to be blown away by their fabulous astrophotography.

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For ages last night I sat in bed wondering where to go to photograph this marvellous sight… wondering if it would be cloudy, would it be clear, would the skies provide the same dramatic scenery as I was presented for the Smiley Face Conjunction, would I remember the spare batteries, my tripod, the remote switch, would the alarm wake me up or would I sleep through it?!

Luckily, everything came together for a beautiful morning of photography and I was able to capture some stunning images of the Moon, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars conjunction. 

Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars Conjunction at Dawn

The image above is my favourite from the session, and was taken with the Canon 20D and Sigma 17-70mm lens @ 33mm, f/5.6, 2.0s exposure @ ISO800.

Please continue reading below to see more photos of the conjunction gracing the lovely morning skies.

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UPDATE: Photos of the Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars Conjunction from the 23rd February.

Conjunctions of the Moon and Planets can be quite special events, as we saw on December 1st 2008 when The Smiley Face Conjunction graced our skies. A conjunction is an alignment or grouping together of 2 or more celestial bodies (usually the moon and planets) in the sky, from our vantage point on Earth. The objects aren’t necessarily physically close to each other in space, but from where we see them, we call the grouping a conjunction.

A conjunction doesn’t have any particularly special meaning, but they can be interesting to observe because very close conjunctions are quite rare events. It can be very exciting to see two planets in the same field of view of your telescope! Not only that, but conjunctions, especially with the moon and/or bright planets are involved, are just a lovely spectacle to look at and photograph.

Smiley Face Conjunction at Sunset, December 1st 2008

Given that, there’s a few conjunctions coming up later in February and in late April that are worth getting up early to see and photograph:

• February 23rd: Conjunction with the Moon, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars (Photos here)
• February 25th: Conjunction with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars
• April 23rd: Conjunction with the Moon, Venus and Mars

Continue reading for more information including sky charts and tips for observing and photographing the conjunctions.

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In the From the Vault series, I feature an older image which hasn’t been seen here before and I talk about the capture and processing and hopefully highlight why this image is special to me.

The feature image in From the Vault this week shows a Dynamic Jupiter in Motion with an image montage and a 21-frame animation bringing Jupiter alive and is something you must see! You can watch Ganymede and Europa transit across the face of Jupiter, the GRS rotate into view, and the volcanic moon Io pop out from behind Jupiter in the last few frames. Albedo features on Ganymede are visible in practically every frame, including while transiting Jupiter, and icey Europa actually reveals its crescent phase while contrasted against the backdrop of the gas giant.

This montage of images was captured on the morning of the 23rd March, 2007 over a period of more than 2 hours in conditions that peaked in the excellent range. Click the image to see the full-size version.

Dynamic Jupiter (click image for full-size)

Continue reading to see the animation and learn more about the capture and processing of this image.

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Wow, well last night certainly proved to be more stressful than was expected! After a beautiful and clear practise run on Sunday night, it was supposed to be crystal clear on Monday night too but high cloud and then thick low cloud came in during Monday afternoon which threatened to spoil the whole event for me.

News of the rare celestial alignment had made it to all the media outlets and it got quite a bit of coverage yesterday. I gave a short interview for the local Star 104.5FM radio station, and I saw it mentioned on news.com.au, and the TV news as well.

It did clear for me, just! Here’s the first of the many images I captured. 

Smiley Face Conjunction at Sunset (HDR)

The picture above is available for purchase as a print, matted and framed, or even as a greeting card at RedBubble. Please read on to see more..

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