The winning images of this year’s Reach For The Stars competition will be available to view outside of the DIAS headquarters from 26 July. A wave of stunning photos of the night sky and the distant cosmos have been recognised in this year’s Reach For The Stars competition. The latest , run by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), saw some presented by the participants, including a massive star nearing the end of its life, a moonrise above Bray Head, the Milky Way from the perspective of a cave and more.
The winner of the Back On Earth – Landmark award was Tom O’Donoghue from Malahide, who captured the Baltimore Beacon on the edge of a cliff with the Milky Way shining in the distance. “Having seen lots of aurora shots this year, this one really stood out to us for the creativity and imagination,” said Prof Peter Gallagher, head of astrophysics at DIAS and a member of the judging panel. “Tom O’Donoghue’s ‘Sentinel’ shows how even the most familiar landmarks can still be captured in new ways.
” Another winning image was ‘The Jewels of the Swam’, taken by Martin McCormack, from Glasnevin. This image won the Out of this World – Deep Sky award and shows the Crescent Nebula in stunning detail. The image shows a star at the centre of the nebula shedding its outer layers into space.
‘The Jewels of the Swan’ an image of the Crescent Nebula. Image: Martin McCormack. “Although the Crescent Nebula is a bright one, it can be notoriously diffic.