{"id":909739,"date":"2026-09-29T11:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T11:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909739\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T11:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T11:38:12","slug":"in-moments-like-this-i-feel-nothing-but-gratitude-for-being-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time-says-astrophotographer-on-award-winning-aurora-picture-taken-on-a-trip-to-iceland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909739\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIn moments like this, I feel nothing but gratitude for being in the right place at the right time,\u201d says astrophotographer on award-winning aurora picture taken on a trip to Iceland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many astrophotographers capture images of the Northern Lights (aurora borealis), but snapping the awe-inspiring frames of the solar activity dancing in our atmosphere requires not only skill, but timing too.<\/p>\n

For Bulgarian astrophotographer Radoslav Sviretsov<\/a>, during a trip to Iceland this January, the timing was spot on. And now, the image he captured has been awarded first place in the \u201cAurorae\u201d category of the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sviretsov was on the hunt for the Northern Lights during what he told the photography competition organizers was a \u201cparticularly strong\u201d geomagnetic storm.<\/p>\n

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\"Church
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The Crown by Radoslav Sviretsov (Image credit: Radoslav Sviretsov)<\/p>\n

Radoslav Sviretsov gear and settings<\/p>\n

He came across a traditional Icelandic church between the small coastal town of Keflav\u00edk and the capital city, Reykjav\u00edk, far from light pollution. The dark sky intensified the already strong solar activity, enabling Sviretsov to snap the Northern Lights in a way, he said, they\u2019re \u201crarely seen\u201d.<\/p>\n

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“In moments like this, I feel nothing but gratitude for being in the right place at the right time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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\"Northern
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Aurora Between Two Continents by Phil Halper (Image credit: Phil Harper)<\/p>\n

Phil Halper’s gear and settings<\/p>\n

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Sony A7S III<\/a>15 mm | f\/2 | ISO 3200 | 2.5 secondsLocation: Kj\u00f3sarhreppur, Capital Region, Iceland, 12 November 2025\u00a0<\/p>\n

British astrophotographer, Phil Halper, clinched second with his frame \u201cAurora Between Two Continents.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told the competition organizers how, in November last year, he traveled to Iceland with just one day\u2019s notice to snap a \u201cmultitude\u201d of powerful CMEs \u2013 or coronal mass ejections (large eruptions of plasma from the Sun\u2019s surface) \u2013 which had sent aurorae \u201crippling far beyond\u201d their usual reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the Edge of Glory\u201d was the final commended image in the \u201cAurorae\u201d category, and it came from US photographer MaryBeth Kiczenski<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Norther
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(Image credit: MaryBeth Kiczenski)<\/p>\n

MaryBeth Kiczenski’s gear ad settings<\/p>\n

Taken in Norway late last year, Kiczenski explained how moonlight and clouds are often \u201coverlooked\u201d when aurora chasing, but that, in the Arctic, they can provide an unmatched \u201cdreamlike quality\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year is the world\u2019s largest astrophotography competition, hosted by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, London.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s overall winner was Ali Alobaidly (Kuwait) for his depiction of the rarely photographed Shark Nebula<\/a>, snagging him \u00a310,000 (approximately 13,000 \/ AU$19,000) along with the competition accolade. Category winners took home \u00a31,500 (approximately $2,000 \/ AU$2,800).<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s our expert\u2019s pick of the best telescopes for astrophotography and stargazing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many astrophotographers capture images of the Northern Lights (aurora borealis), but snapping the awe-inspiring frames of the solar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-909739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}