The David Malin Award winners have been announced for 2020. We show you some of the 253 stellar shots that entered this year's astrophotography competition.
A close up of craters on the Moon.

The David Malin Award winners have been announced! This is “Hadley Rille” by Peter Ward. This won the Solar System category.

We’re not travelling as much as we were last year. For obvious reasons.

But we’re going to take you on an adventure. The thing is, we’re not taking you somewhere local. We’re going to take you to the stars!

Every year, the best of the best of astrophotography enter the Central West Astronomical Society Astrophotography Awards. Otherwise known as the David Malin Awards. And they’re named as such because world-renowned astrophotographer David Malin judges the entries.

He judges the pictures to see if they capture the beauty of the sky and show astronomy in an aesthetically pleasing way.

This year’s competition had 253 stellar entries! And that’s a new record for the competition! The competition had eight categories, including Smartphone Astrophotography and Scientific Animation.

This year’s winners will have a permanent exhibition at our Parkes radio telescope. It will run for a year from this September.

Here are some of the absolutely out of this world shots.

The photo that won the David Malin Awards. It's a photo of a sunset at a lake. The trees are shadows. The Moon is in the sky.

Nightscapes Winner and Overall Winner: ‘Tranquillity Base’ by Mark Polsen.

 

A hot pink galaxy against a black starry night. It's the Wide-Field Winner of the David Malin Awards.

Wide-Field Winner: ‘The Gum Nebula’ by Troy Casswell.

 

A photo of a starry night scape. It's the Smartphone Winner of the David Malin Awards.

Smartphone Astrophotography Winner: ‘Smartphone Galactic’ by Alex Cherney.

 

A picture of the galaxy with grey clouds and stars. It's the Deep-Sky Winner of the David Malin Awards.

Deep Sky Winner: ‘The Dragon strikes from the darkness (NGC 6188)’ by Jon Ground.

 

A black picture with a kaleidoscope line. It's the Junior Winner of the David Malin Awards.

Junior Winner: ‘Canopus Spectra’ by Blake Iscaro.