Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist • Hacker News Board

Re: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

#41

Post by rdrd » Sat, Aug 09, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

I get an immense amount of pride when I see anything that the Royal Museum Greenwich do because not only is it very local to me but they have such a great way of balancing the history of maritime/meridian with modern services and facilities.

If you’re coming to London please spend a day in Greenwich, you won’t regret it, take in the museums, the small markets, the observatory, stroll round the park, grab a photo of the best view in London (imo) https://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory/attractions/enjoy-be... - then take a walk along the Thames, once you’re done you can hop on an Uber boat and head into central London.

Re: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

#42

Post by dylan604 » Sat, Aug 09, 2025, 9:35 PM UTC

9dev wrote: post #40

dylan604 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capturing motion with timelapse and/or long exposure again is just a way of showing us things that we cannot “capture” on our own. We know the sky moves, we know the auroras change shape, intensity, colors, but on a timescale slower than our perception can handle. Capturing that through a camera just proves that, and is not making things up. Your premise is just too out there. Someone only ever having seen long expos…

It was an analogy. Most people have only ever seen northern lights in Timelapse shots, and thus have no clue how the real thing differs. Capturing auroras in a photo creates a visualisation of their movement in the sky, and not an accurate representation of what the phenomenon looks like.

But it does look like that. You just don't have the patience to and persistence of vision to see it. You keep making it sound like the camera is making up the image. It's not. It's what is there. The auroras are not static like you are making it out to be. None of this photography is showing unnatural imagery. Why is this confusing?

Re: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

#43

Post by alexchamberlain » Sun, Aug 10, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

sal_welissen wrote: post #33

hodgehog11 wrote: post #4

This is the kind of discovery that I love to see on HN. Regardless of who wins the competition, we all win by getting to see all of the entries. Absolutely gorgeous shots. Made my day.

> Absolutely gorgeous shots Yes, but these days I have to wonder whether AI was involved, and I hate having that thought because of the massive time, expertise, equipment, and luck that it takes for the real photos to be created.

There is a category called "Annie Maunder Open Category", which allows for creative use of generative AI, as long as it is declared, otherwise it is banned. You have to take that slightly with a pinch of salt though, as many of the images don't represent what could be seen with the naked eye. It could be as simple as a wide spectrum sensor (which I don't think anyone could claim is AI) through to alignment of many 100s of images (for which the algorithms in use may have been considered AI a decade or 2 ago).