Corona Australis Dust Complex, 2017 (digital photo)

Creator: Mario Cogo The image shows the Sun Corona in all its glory during the August Total Solar Eclipse, flanked on left hand side by the blue Regulus -the little King, and farther on the right hand side by the red Mars. Magnitude 11 stars are visible, and the corona can be traced almost to 30 solar radii distance. An unusual setup consisting of both a fast f/1.4 lens, at full aperture (to get as much signal as possible), and a large buffer camera at base ISO (to avoid overexposure) was used to record this image. The total exposure duration of 100s was recorded in more than 120 individual images. Born digital photograph entitled 'Corona Australis Dust Complex', taken by Mario Cogo at Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, Namibia on 18th August 2017. Taken with Takahashi FSQ 106 ED telescope; Astro-Physics 1200 GTO mount; Canon Eos 6D Cooling CDS Mod; 530 mm; f/5. Winner of Stars & Nebulae category in Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018.