DIAS Reach for the Stars Astro Competition 2022

Milkyway over Pine Island

I got some exciting news last week from DIAS (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) regarding my entry to their Reach for the Stars Astrophotography Competition - Back to Earth Catagory. I entered 2 pictures a couple of months ago, the Milkyway Arch over Pine Island and Milkyway-core behind Ballnahinch fishing hut (both in my Astro Gallery). Both were shortlisted so are on exhibit outside DIAS building on 10 Burlington Road and is free to go with lots of other great pictures. I won the category with the Arch picture which was fantastic news with the image being published in the Irish Times and several other news outlets. Check out the DIAS article here: https://www.dias.ie/2022/08/06/reach-for-the-stars-astrophotography-competition-2022-winners-revealed/.

The Milkyway arch was a 6-shot pano with the sky tracked and the foreground stacked, all taken from the same position. The core detail shot was a 180sec foreground and a 180sec tracked sky exposure with the tripod moved up the hill a bit to get a clearer view of the Milkyway. If you would like more information like this on my pictures let me know.

Milkyway Core behind Ballynahinch Fishing hut

It is great to have such a great competition here in Ireland where we have rather limited availability of clear skies so it gives everyone the same chance of getting Astro images. It was also nice to see the two different categories of Landscape Astrophotography and Deep Space Astrophotography as the two are very different. Thanks to DIAS for organizing this and hopefully again next year and congrats to all the other people who won.