Are you an astrophotographer with an enthusiasm for astronomy education? If so, a new contest run by one of the IAU Offices is for you. The IAU’s Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) is running an astrophotography contest until 15 April 2021. The winning photographers will receive cash prizes, and their images will be made available as Open Educational Resources for teachers and learners worldwide.

Astronomy education is a powerful tool to teach students about our place in the Universe, and it is also an exciting gateway science to the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). One of the OAE’s goals is to provide astronomy educators around the world with a foundational collection of high-quality educational resources. While many excellent images are already available for public use, the OAE has identified a number of astronomy-related themes with which educators could use further support.

Participants in the contest can submit images in the following categories: star trails, meteor showers, comets, total lunar eclipses, light pollution, aurorae (still images and time-lapses), wide star fields, Sun/Moon haloes, and time-lapses of the Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter. Submissions will be evaluated by an international panel of astrophotographers and astronomy educators. In addition to aesthetic and technical criteria, the judges will  consider carefully the educational value of each entry in the context of primary and secondary school teaching.

There will be three winning entries in each category; cash prizes of €750, €500 and €250 will be awarded for the first-, second-, and third-place entries respectively. All winning entries will be published in the OAE’s astronomy education resources collection under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 International Licence (note that the photographers will still retain the copyright to their images).

For more information about the competition rules and the submission process, please visit the competition webpage.

More information

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together almost 12 000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.

Contacts

Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE)
Haus der Astronomie
Heidelberg, Germany
Email: oae@astro4edu.org

Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Press Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 320 06 761
Cell: +49 173 38 72 621
Email: lars@eso.org