2025 Southern Hemisphere Winners
Welcome to the judges’ decisions of the nPAE 2025 Southern Hemisphere Astrophotography Competition! This year saw a very competitive field with high quality entries from previous winners against astrophotographers who clearly know their craft. And astrophotography is a craft. It’s a combination of patience, expertise, equipment and post processing. All of the images have merit in the own right and everyone has won something in making it through to the final stage. We’d like to thank everyone for taking part and those who also took time to vote in the public vote.
In reverse order the judges award the following places and prizes!
3rd place – wins an nPAE Gift Pack
Nick from Australia with with Gabriela Mistral SHO – NGC 3324. Produced with 15.6 hours of 600 and 300 sec subs. Equipment used: Imaging Telescopes: TS-Optics Photoline 130mm f/7 FPL53 Triplet Apo (APO130f7-P) Imaging Cameras: ZWO ASI294MC Pro, Mount: Sky-Watcher NEQ6-Pro, Filters: Askar ColourMagic D2 (Sii+Oiii) Duo Narrow Band 6nm 2″ · Optolong L-Ultimate 2″, Accessories: APM-Riccardi Apo Reducer 0.75x M63 (APM-RIRED-M63-small), Guiding Scope: ZWO 60mm guide scope, Guiding Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, Software: Adobe Photoshop · Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP) Pixinsight. Processed in Pixinsight and finished off in Photoshop SHO Palette. Stacked and extracted in Astropixel Processor.
The judges liked the use of multiple scopes in the production of this amazing image. Nick also won the public vote so the hearts and minds of many astronomers agree. Well done Nick!
2nd place – wins £50 nPAE discount voucher
Fernando from Brazil with NGC 6729 – Corona Australis. Equipment used: Zwo AM3, Asiair Mini. Camera: Asi294MC Pro + Asi120mm mini. Reducer Askar f3.9. Telescope: Askar FRA400. Filter L-pro. ZWO Mini Guider 30mm f4. NGC6729 or Caldwell 68 is a reflection/emission nebula located in the constellation of Corona Australis, approximately 400 light-years away, making it one of the closest star formation regions to our solar system. Digital processing: Pixinsight.
The judges were impressed with the dust lanes, the star forming region and the Chandelier Cluster in great detail. Well done Fernando!
1st Place – £200 (or your currency equivalent) cash.
Carlos from Peru with The Cosmic Butterfly Nebula. NGC 2899. Equipment used: 8″ f/3.9 Newtonian telescope. ZWO ASI 715 MC camera. EQ6R-PRO Sky-Watcher mount. ZWO Duo-Band filter. Digital processing: 180 × 60s exposures (3 hours total integration). Stacking in DeepSkyStacker. Processing in PixInsight: cropping, background extraction, colour calibration, deconvolution, noise reduction, linear stretching, star reduction, colour saturation, contrast adjustment. Post-processing in Photoshop.
It was hard for the judges to argue with the subline elegance and beauty of a butterfly! Especially when it’s in the sky at 56 degrees south! Well done Carlos!
We now have the 3 winning images for the nPAE 2025 World Champion Public Vote. We think it’s going to be the biggest showdown yet! Voting opens on the 17th of October.
