Jeff Donaldson’s image of the IC 1805 stole the judges’ hearts and was named winner of the Photo of the Week contest for September 11, 2020.
Shooting from Enfield, Nova Scotia, Donaldson said he used a Celestron Nightscape 8300 to capture the image through a Sky-Watcher ED80 Pro with a focal ratio of 7.5. He said he captured about four hours of exposures for the image.
“Shot with the Optolong L-eNhance filter from my backyard observatory over a few clear nights in later August, early September the Heart Nebula in four different images to create this mosaic,” he wrote.
As one of the judges said, “For a four-panel mosaic it is well balanced,” with “good depth” and a “nice histogram.”
Randall Peterman’s image of the star trails with a lucky meteor took the honourable mention this week.
Shooting from Burnaby Mountain Park in British Columbia on August 10, 2020, Peterman captured the image with one hour and four minutes of exposure time. He said he used an Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera and an Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ ED MSC lens set at f/3.5 at 12mm.
Peterman said this image was made with the Olympus “Live Composite” feature, allowing a single image to capture long exposures without blowing out highlights in the foreground. He noted the foreground includes light-painted Japanese totem poles.
Prizes for the 2020-21 SkyNews Photo of the Week contest are sponsored by Sky-Watcher, Celestron, iOptron and The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Click here for more details on the prize packages that will be awarded to the best photos this year.
