The David Malin astrophotography awards 2026 have announced their winners, showcasing breathtaking images of auroras, nebulas, and deep sky star clusters submitted by amateur astronomers and photographers from Australia and around the world.
Overall winner: Lunar Apennines
The overall winner and solar system winner is Stefan Buda for his image of the Lunar Apennines (Montes Apenninus), a rugged mountain range on the northern part of the moon's near side. Buda captured the image using a DIY Dall-Kirkham telescope and a ZWO ASI290MM camera.
Deep Sky winner: The Rippling Flames – Chamaeleon III
Andy Campbell won the Deep Sky category with a two-panel mosaic revealing the scale and structure of the Chamaeleon III star-forming region. The Chamaeleon molecular cloud complex lies around 450 to 600 light years from Earth, containing dense dust lanes, faint reflection nebulosity, and scattered young stellar populations.
Wide-Field winner: The Dividing Line
Jarrod Koh won the Wide-Field category with an image capturing two very different structures within the Orion molecular cloud complex: the bright nebula M78 and the dark nebula LDN 1622. M78 is illuminated primarily by two young B-type stars whose scattered blue light reveals the surrounding dust.
Nightscapes winner: Zenith
Brighton Seeley won the Nightscapes category with an aurora image taken during a once-in-a-lifetime event. Seeley trudged through the bush to the beach as the southern lights danced above, taking over 6,000 photos. He said, "This photo is one of the 6,000 plus I took but it highlighted an extreme amount of activity although it still remains difficult to grasp the scale of how large it was."
Nightscapes honourable mentions
Luke Rasmussen received an honourable mention for The Wishing Tree, captured during an aurora australis at Tasmania's Bruny Island. Ed Hurst was honoured for Pantoneys Crown, an isolated mesa in NSW, set against star trails and a pre-dawn glow. Luke Tscharke earned an honourable mention for Tasman Arc, showing the aurora australis atop Australia's tallest sea cliffs.
Deep Sky honourable mentions
Elizabeth Armarego captured Celestial Dolphin, an emission nebula created by the WR star EZ Canis Majoris, a stunning doubly ionised oxygen (Oiii) object. Jarrod Rueff imaged BRAN 56, inspired by the 2025 Deep Sky winner, using hydrogen-alpha data for luminance. Andy Campbell also won an honourable mention for Winged Sandals of Mercury, showing a faint filamentary structure within the Vela supernova remnant. Frank Alvaro captured God's Hand, a star-forming region in Puppis about 1,300 light years from Earth, described as a "cometary globule" composed of dense dark matter illuminated by a nearby star.
Wide-Field honourable mention
Rodney Watters received an honourable mention for Gum12b RGB Ha SII, centred around the nebula Gum12b in the southern hemisphere constellations of Antlia and Vela, resembling a flaming tree in space.
Additional images
Murray Parkinson submitted an image of Comet 2025 R3 PanSTARRS, created from 45 one-minute exposures aligned on the stars and the comet separately, resulting in a high signal-to-noise ratio with realistic comet colours.
