See the Winners of the Earth & Sky Photo Contest

By Nancy Atkinson - May 16, 2012 04:37 PM UTC | Observing

Enjoy this delightful video put together by

Babak Tafreshi

from

The World At Night

showing the winners of the third International Earth and Sky Photo Contest. With the theme of 'Dark Skies Importance,' these are lovely landscape astrophotos, " in appreciation of the night sky beauty as an essential element of our nature, importance of preserving dark skies, and public awareness on the growing threat of light pollution," Tafreshi said.

The organizers of the contest were the TWAN group along with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, emphasizing Global Astronomy Month (April) and the contest was part of the Dark Skies Awareness project. The 2012 contest submission period was during the month of April, and submissions were to be in the "TWAN style" of landscape astrophotography — combining elements of the night sky set in the backdrop of the Earth horizon with a notable location or landmark.

Here's the winning photograph by Norbert Span from Austria, "Stars Above Innsbruck:"

[/caption]

You can all the images

here

.

The contest is open to anyone of any age, anywhere around the world. Interested in entering this contest next year? Check out the

contest info page.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com