This week was an especially hard week to judge, with more than 100 images coming in from dozens of photographers across Canada.
The image that stood out above the rest took aim at the Sun. Jean Guimond’s astounding image of a solar prominence took the top spot, winning Photo of the Week for July 10, 2020. (Editor’s note: We’re publishing the winning image early for the Photo of the Year contest.)
Guimond sent SkyNews four H-alpha shots of the south-western limb of the Sun, showing the evolution of a solar prominence from June 16 to 19, 2020. The winning image was from June 17, 2020 at 1:13 p.m. UT.
“Each image is a stack of the best 100 of 1,000 frames combined with Autostakkert!3 taken with a modified Takahashi TOA-150 for H-Alpha solar imaging equipped with a Baader DERF and a Lunt etalon and blocking filter,” he wrote. “The images were taken with a PGR (now FLIR) Grasshopper USB3 videocamera with a Televue Powermate 2X (focal length 2200mm—f/14.6) from my backyard in Quebec City.”
He noted he did image processing in Photoshop — with the solar surface inverted and colourized, and the prominence in grayscale.
Our honourable mention this week goes to Carl James for his beautiful image of the Milky Way over Waterton June 23, 2020.
He said he took the image with a Nikon Z6 and a 24mm lens. Set at f/2.2, he took five one-minute shots of the sky, and five one-minute shots of the lake bracketed with 30-second, 15-second and 10-second shots, for 25 shots in total.
“Imaged using a sky tracker and stacking techniques in Photoshop,” he wrote. “Also used a Hoya Red enhancer filter help cut into the details of the Milky Way and tone down the village lights.”
