Isle of Wight photographer, Ainsley Bennett, had some exciting news to share this morning.
He was sworn to secrecy for sometime, but was able to announce that in April he was shortlisted for Astronomy Photographer of the Year for this fantastic shot.
It was taken last October and is titled ‘Binary Haze’.
Category winner
Ainsley explained there were eight main categories to the competition and his image was entered into the ‘Skyscapes’ category.
He said,
“The image depicts the conjunction of the crescent moon and Venus. Due to the low lying mist and my camera settings it makes the moon and Venus look like glowing spheres, which I thought looked like binary stars from another star system.”
It’s a winner!
On Thursday night Ainsley made his way to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, for the awards ceremony and picked up the award for the Skyscapes category.
Click on image to see larger version
Ainsley’s work had been shortlisted from the record entry of 4,500 images from 80 countries across the globe.
Exhibited at Royal Observatory
His image will not only appear in the 2016 Astronomy Photographer of the Year book, but will also be exhibited at the Royal Observatory for the next year.
Ainsley said,
“I still can’t quite believe it as the standard of images in the shortlist were outstanding. Due to the quality of the other images I am humbled to have taken one of the category winning images.
“The skyscapes category was also the highest entered category with over 1000 images so I’m feeling pretty chuffed. My image will be on display at the Royal observatory for the following year.”
Image: © Ainsley Bennett Photography
