Astrophotography Community Portfolio Collection
hosted by Celestial Visions
Celestial Visions is proud to showcase a select group of astrophotographers, united by a shared passion for the cosmos, the wonders of astronomy and astrophotography. This portfolio collection celebrates and honors key members of our community and their inspired astrophotography, curated by Dr John Goldsmith.
Please note all text and images are copyright by the respective copyright holders. Links are provided below to external web sites and social media sites, which are managed by the respective photographers, these external sites are not managed by Celestial Visions.
Enquiries regarding publication or usage are welcome. Contact Celestial Visions via the contacts page.
Please note all text and images are copyright by the respective copyright holders. Links are provided below to external web sites and social media sites, which are managed by the respective photographers, these external sites are not managed by Celestial Visions.
Enquiries regarding publication or usage are welcome. Contact Celestial Visions via the contacts page.
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Aissa Aoumoussa Mohammed
(ALGERIA) Aissa Mohammed is an Algerian based astrophotographer, who lives in the North African Sahara desert in Guerrara, a small town 650km to the south from Algiers, the capital of Algeria. His interests include astronomy and astrophotography, and he has developed a collection of astronomical landscape images showing the desert landscape at night. Mohammed says "I Iove this kind of activity (astrophotography), and my objective is to show the beauty of the night sky with the landscape and buildings". Of the desert skies, Mohammed says "the sky here is clear in perhaps all days of the year and in the summer the sky is dusty so observation is difficult. We can see a clear sky with 10 or 20 percent light pollution". More information about Mohammed's town of Guerrara is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Guerrara |
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James Athanasou
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) James Athanasou began astrophotography in 1979 in his backyard in Perth, taking constellation shots with a Canon SLR camera. In 1986, he photographed Comet Halley from Mt Magnet, using a motor controller he built for guided photos on a Meade tracking mount. In 2010, James accompanied John Goldsmith during Goldsmith’s 2010 PhD fieldwork to Wolfe Creek Crater (East Kimberley) as a Gingin Observatory representative. James accomplished new timelapse and astrophotography at the crater. His memberships includes five years with the Astronomical Society of Western Australia (ASWA), the Astronomy Group of Western Australia (since inception), Gingin Observatory (five years), Astronomical Society of the South West (four years) and the Murdoch Astronomical Society (five years). His photographs have been published in Sky & Telescope, a book called “Drawn to Mt Magnet”, and the West Australian newspaper. |
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Paul Sartory
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA)
Born in 1954 in the UK, Paul's interest in astronomy was inspired by his father who was a keen telescope maker and lunar observer in the 60's and 70's and a friend of the late Sir Patrick Moore to whom he donated several of his telescopes. After many years of manually guided film emulsion astrophotography under the less than ideal British night skies Paul's career in the oil and gas industry took him away from the UK and left him little time to continue his passion. Eventually in 2001 Paul found himself working in Perth in Western Australia. Here were the dark skies that he had only dreamed of and with the complete transformation of astrophotography with the introduction of CCD's Paul devoted himself to mastering the new technology and capturing the glories of the night sky. Retiring in 2011 Paul observes and photographs the night sky from his backyard in Swan Valley North of Perth using both refractors and Schmidt–Cassegrain reflectors and photographs the sun using a Narrow Band Hydrogen-alpha telescope. His endeavours have been rewarded with awards at the CWAS "David Malin Awards" and the annual WA Astrofest Astrophotography Competition.
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA)
Born in 1954 in the UK, Paul's interest in astronomy was inspired by his father who was a keen telescope maker and lunar observer in the 60's and 70's and a friend of the late Sir Patrick Moore to whom he donated several of his telescopes. After many years of manually guided film emulsion astrophotography under the less than ideal British night skies Paul's career in the oil and gas industry took him away from the UK and left him little time to continue his passion. Eventually in 2001 Paul found himself working in Perth in Western Australia. Here were the dark skies that he had only dreamed of and with the complete transformation of astrophotography with the introduction of CCD's Paul devoted himself to mastering the new technology and capturing the glories of the night sky. Retiring in 2011 Paul observes and photographs the night sky from his backyard in Swan Valley North of Perth using both refractors and Schmidt–Cassegrain reflectors and photographs the sun using a Narrow Band Hydrogen-alpha telescope. His endeavours have been rewarded with awards at the CWAS "David Malin Awards" and the annual WA Astrofest Astrophotography Competition.
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Dr Chris Thorne
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) Dr Chris Thorne’s research follows a common thread aimed at improving the scalability and fidelity of positional systems such as simulation, military, geospatial, modeling, and Virtual Reality (VR). Chris is best known the floating origin software design concept, an idea aptly mirrored a Futurama episode when the Planet Express space ship was described as moving by staying still and shifting the Universe around itself. He combines his astrophotography skills with virtual reality and advanced image processing methods. Research profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris_Thorne3 Project and research: https://www.floatingorigin.com/ |
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Mark Bridger
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) Mark is an engineering supervisor with the Perth Mint. He is an Australian citizen, originally from the United Kingdom and presently lives in Quinns Rock, Western Australia. His astrophotography is done from his backyard where he uses two Skywatcher refractors (80mm and a 120mm), a 60mm Takahashi, a 10 inch carbon fibre Newtonian and an 8 inch Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. He uses an SBIG ST8300 camera, a DMK21 monochromatic camera and two Canon DSLR cameras (EOS 60Da and an EOS 550D). |
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Brendan Mitchell
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) Brendan Mitchell grew up on cattle stations in the Northern Territory, before moving to Western Australia. His experiences in the Northern Territory led to a growing appreciation of the night sky and this developed into a love of astrophotography. Brendan operates Astronomy Academy, a successful business based on the teaching of deep sky astrophotography and related services and products. He hosts a lively astrophotography discussion group https://www.facebook.com/groups/astronomyacademydiscussion. The Astronomy Academy meets on a monthly basis, providing an accelerated learning environment for deep sky astrophotography. Brendan holds a Civil and Construction Engineering degree specialising in Structural Design from Curtin University with his primary experience in mid to high rise buildings. |
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William Vrbasso
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) William Vrbasso is a control systems engineer living in Perth, Western Australia. He is a self-taught amateur astro-photographer dedicated to advancing his skill in night landscape photography through camera lenses, as well as deep sky photography through telescopes. Will often seeks the solitude of remote areas of the country where the night skies are made more profoundly beautiful with the absence of modern civilisation. Through passion, perseverance and experimentation, Will has been successful in winning the Best Astrophoto Award in Astrofest 2017, multiple commendations in Astrofest and Australian Photography Magazine competitions, and has been featured in NASA’s APOD, Australian Sky and Telescope, and amateur astrophotography magazines. His images feature online at www.stellaraustralis.com |
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Ken Lawson
(GERALDTON, WESTERN AUSTRALIA) Ken Lawson has been obsessed with astronomy since he was about 8 years of age, when he first saw Saturn through his cheap small refractor telescope that had a really bad and wobbly mount and tripod. Ken formed the Geraldton Astronomy Group in 2007 to foster like-minded people and to organise star party events. Ken has been the president of the Geraldton Camera Club and is a long-standing committee member of Scinapse: The Midwest Science Engagement Group. Ken runs star tours for local and international visitors along with photography workshops. His web site is kenlawson.com.au |
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Paean Ng
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) Paean Ng is a nightscape astrophotographer residing in the southern suburbs of Perth. He is an Australian citizen, originally born in Singapore, and moved to Perth at the age of 19. Paean first picked up a DSLR camera in 2014 and has since focused his efforts on ultra-high resolution panoramas and 360° photospheres of the Milky Way over the Western Australian landscape. Paean's astrophpotography has been featured in multiple online publications and has had his work exhibited at Astrofest. He is also the co-founder of the Perth Astrophotographers Facebook page. His website is: www.astrordinaryimaging.com |
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Brett Turner
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) Brett Turner is a retired electronics engineer whose interest in astronomy started with the race to the Moon, during the 1960’s. Brett’s first astro-photo was taken of Mars during the 1988 Martian opposition using the Perth Observatory’s C14 telescope, where he successfully recorded an orange blob. Over the next few years he focussed on deep sky astrophotography with the Perth Observatory’s 16 inch University telescope, and he authored a number of articles in the Southern Astronomy magazine. Brett currently concentrates on planetary and deep sky photography at his own observatory located near Dardanup in the south-west of Western Australia. |
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Kristo Orma
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) After many years as a keen amateur photographer and fell-walker, Kristo decided to start a freelance photography business - Kristo Orma Freelance Photography. The combination of these two pursuits, has allowed Kristo to access and capture images of many of places. His photos are inspired by light, color, techniques from black & white processing, vintage photos, creative perspective, and of course, most importantly, the personalities of the people he photographs. Website kristoorma.com Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/artkristoorma |
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