We have just received a message from Bart Declercq, telling us that with the following mosaic image of Moretus/Clavius, he has won the Cloudy Nights Imaging and Sketching Contest.

To capture the image, Bart used a DMK 31AF03:

Charlie, the organizer of the contest, writes:

To all of you who took the time to stop by and vote for your favorite submission - thank you so much! Your participation really makes the contest!

To all the contestants - every one of your submissions is worthy of winning. Congratulations to all of you on a job done very well indeed!

Bart, congratulations on your win! Please contact me via PM with your t-shirt size and also the address where you want us to send it!

We are delighted to announce that Steve Fox has just won one DMK 21AF04.AS.

Congratulations!

We have just sent him an e-mail confirming his win and asking him to send us his full postal address, so that we can dispatch his prize as soon as possible!

Again, this month, the winner is based in the UK.

The Astronomy Cameras Competition is a monthly event, meaning that you can now enter again for this month’s prize. Even if you participated in last month’s competition, you may enter again this month. This month, we are again offering one of our most popular astronomy cameras - DMK 21AF04.AS.

UPDATED December 13, 2007: I just received the following message from Steve:
Hi Jonathan, Just to let you now the camera arrived yesterday - it’s really good. Thanks again. Steve

Graeme Coates from Oxfordshire, UK has won the BBC Sky at Night magazine Hotshots 2007 Award. The British magazine collects astronomy photos from their readers throughout the year.

For the December issue, a panel of judges (consisting of Sir Patrick Moore, Chris Lintott, David Hardy, Peter Laurence, Damian Peach and Sarah Reed) selected the best images and awarded their astro-photographer a substantial prize. This year, the first prize was one The Imaging Source DMK 41AF02.AS FireWire astronomy camera. A runner’s up prize was also awarded.

Graeme’s winning photo was of M31, The Andromeda Galaxy (NGC224):

On this web site, Graeme writes:

The Andromeda Galaxy is a naked eye object from a dark site, appearing as a small smudge in the sky. Long exposures reveal it’s true extent (over three degrees in size!) as well as two smaller elliptical companion galaxies (M32 - top, and M110 - bottom edge partially off frame). It is a member of the Local Group of galaxies, and is actually moving towards us at a rate of about 300km/s.

In an interview with the BBC magazine, Graeme stated:

I’m flattered that my image has been chosen as Hotshots Photo of the Year, given the quality of the images published in the magazine throughout 2007. I was pleased that I was able to get a good result with relatively short exposures on a small refractor, and from moderately light-polluted skies too.

Well done Graeme! We are delighted to award this prize to you.

We are delighted to announce that Caley Monk has just won one DMK 21AF04.AS.

Congratulations!

We have just sent him an e-mail confirming his win and asking him to send us his full postal address, so that we can dispatch his prize as soon as possible!

Judging by his e-mail address, I would guess that he is based in the UK.

The Astronomy Cameras Competition is a monthly event, meaning that you can now enter again for this month’s prize. Even if you participated in last month’s competition, you may enter again this month. This month, we are again offering one of our most popular astronomy cameras - DMK 21AF04.AS.

Entering the competition is completely free of charge.

Enter the competition now! Good luck!

UPDATED November 06, 2007: Caley’s prize was dispatched yesterday afternoon. It should be with him in the United Kingdom by Thursday this week.

UPDATED November 09, 2007: I just received the following message from Caley:
Hi Jonathan, I received the camera yesterday - thank you. Its great!!! Kind Regards, Caley