The 2025 Astrophotography Contest

RASC Mississauga Centre

The contest is divided into Master Class, General, and Youth divisions.

Master Class Division:

Master Class Division is open to members who have won a category in a contest previously.

Master Class Category: Solar System

Winner:

Photo by: Shakeel Anwar

Object: Comet C2025 A6 Lemon passes the Croc’s Eye Galaxy M94

Date Taken: Oct 16th, 2025

Location: Monticello, Ontario

Equipment: Radian 75mm refractor, ASI 2600mc Air camera, AM5 mount

Processing: Taken on the morning of October 16th. 48, 60 second unguided images were taken and combined with calibration frames in Pixinsight to produce the image. Colour and contrast were adjusted in Photoshop to produce the final image. In the image, the comet’s long blue ion tail grazes the halo of the Croc’s Eye galaxy, the spiral structure of which was also captured in the image.

Second Place

Photo by: Shakeel Anwar

Object: Saturn Composite

Date Taken: Dec. 2, 2025

Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Equipment: Celestron C11, Televue 2.5X Powermate, ZWO ADC, Player One Uranus-C camera, ASI290mm camera, Celestron CGX mount

Processing: The 8 year project is now complete! For the 2025 image of Saturn, I processed 17, 2min mono images and combined them with 10, 2 min RGB images to produce the final image with the rings close to edge on. Software used included Firecapture, Registax, Winjupos and Photoshop for both the mono and RGB images. Once complete, I used Photoshop to add the image to the sequence I had been compiling to produce the final image.

Honourable Mention

Photo by: Shakeel Anwar

Object: Daytime ISS Lunar Crescent Transit

Date Taken: June 23rd, 2025<

Location: Brantford, Ontario

Equipment: SkyWatcher Evolux 82ED Refractor, AM5 mount, Uranus-C camera , UV/IR cut filter

Processing: I set up in a parking lot, found the sun using a solar filter and then moved the scope away, took off the filter and slewed hoping the Moon would come into view, using Stellarium as a guide. After trying several times and with the heat rising, the sweat running into my eyes and time running out, when the Moon finally, magically popped into view, I almost jumped out of my skin! Focusing was difficult due to the low contrast however after adjusting exposure repeatedly, I managed to find it just in time.

An 89 second, 32.4 GB video was captured via Firecapture and then processed in PIPP, Lightroom, Photoshop and Pixinsight to composed the final image.

Master Class Category: Deep Sky

Winner:

Photo by: Dennis Gasparotto

Object: Lion Nebula

Date Taken: Oct 1, 2025

Location: Oakville, Ontario

Equipment: Equipment: Telescope Askar 71F with 0.75 focal reducer 387mm @ F/5.6
Camera: ZWO asi2600mc air camera
Mount: ZWO AM5

Processing: 6 hours of exposure taken from my backyard in Oakville using the Optolong L-Extreme filter for Ha and OIII bandpass. – Processed in PixInsight and Seti Astro, Darks, flats, Dark flats and Bias calibration frames used.
Stars taken in RGB and later combined.

Second Place

Photo by: Shakeel Anwar

Object: Soul Nebula

Date Taken: Sept 1, 2, 3, 2025

Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Equipment: ASI 2600 mc Air, Radian 75mm Petzval Refractor, AM5 mount, NBZ narrowband filter

Processing: With a rare sequence of 3 clear nights, I used my newly acquired ASI 2600mc pro to capture over 11 hours of data on the Soul Nebula. All images and calibration frames were processed in Pixinsight, with finishing touches in Photoshop. I wanted to ensure the subtle hues of red, yellow and orange were highlighted in this nebula, along with the blue oxygen in the centre. I also thought it important to capture the faint surrounding hydrogen clouds, which are left out of many pictures and provide a more accurate view of the neighbourhood around the nebula.

Honourable Mention

Photo by: Michele Rainville

Object: Cave Nebula

Date Taken: May 9 – August 21, 2025 (13 hours 27min)

Location: Alton, Ontario

Equipment: Scope: ZWO ff65, 65mm f/6.4 refractor , Camera: QHTCCD miniCam8m LRGB Ha , ZWO AM5N

Processing: Processed in Pixinsight

Master Class Category: Astroscape

Winner:

Photo by: Shakeel Anwar

Object: Stars and Landscape

Date Taken: June 1st, 2025

Location: South Cayuga, Canada

Equipment: Equipment Used: Canon R astro-modified camera, iOptron SkyTracker Pro mount, Sigma Art 14-24mm f2.8 lens @ 14mm

Processing: Away from the light pollution dome of the GTA and using both RGB and a narrowband NBZ filter, I captured this self portrait observing the Milky Way rising over Lake Erie. Subtle red and green skyglow surround our galaxy while red hydrogen nebulae glow in the dark bands all the way down to the horizon, and in the colourful Rho Ophiuchi region. The RGB image settings were ISO 1600 with an exposure time of 60 seconds. Narrowband images were 90 seconds at ISO 6400. The foreground was a 15 second shot taken at ISO 1600. The images were stacked in DSS and Sequator, processed in SiriL and Pixinsight and then combined and processed further in Photoshop.

General Division:

The General Division is open to members who are starting out in astrophotography.

General Category: Solar System

Winner:

Photo by: Kirby Alguire

Object: Total Lunar Eclipse

Date Taken: Mar 14, 2025

Location: Oakville, ON, Canada

Equipment: Canon EOS 70D DSLR with Canon L-Series 800mm Telephoto lens. No Filters.

Processing: Varied by stage. Totality exposure was 2.5s at ISO 1600 and F11. Photoshop layering to bring the 9 exposures together and adjust sizing and exposure.

Second Place

Photo by: Beverly Bambury

Object: A6 Comet Lemmon

Date Taken: Oct 26, 2025

Location: Mimosa, Ontario

Equipment: ASI585MC-AIR, SVBony SV503 80mm ED Doublet Refractor, Skywatcher HEQ5 tracking mount

Processing: Used Siril for stacking and most editing then recombining the parts. I used their comet stacking documentation and Naztronomy’s comet script. I did sharpening and denoising with SETI Astro Suite Cosmic Clarity. Then a few final touchups in GIMP

Honourable Mention

Photo by: Raghav Dewett

Object: Lunar eclipse

Date Taken: March 14, 2025

Location: Oakville, Ontario

Equipment: Pixel 9a phone over 24 mm eye piece in a 8″ inch dob (1200 focal length) Magnification x50

Processing: Auto

General Category: Deep Sky

Winner:

Photo by: Beverly Bambury

Object: M33, Triangulum Galaxy

Date Taken: 18 Nov and 7 Dec 2025

Location: Dallas, Georgia, USA and Mimosa, Ontario

Equipment: ASI585MC-AIR, SVBony SV503 80mm ED Doublet Refractor, Skywatcher HEQ5 tracking mount

Processing: Sharpening and denoising with BlurX and NoiseX in PixInsight and then to Siril for the rest of the processing and editing.

Second Place

Photo by: Amir Goli

Object: IC 410 – The Tadpoles

Date Taken: 15 imaging nights, from Dec. 7 – Dec. 19

Location: Richmond Hill, ON, Canada

Equipment: Camera: ZWO 533 MM Pro; Telescope: WO Redcat 71; Mount: ZWO AM3; ZWO 8-position filter wheel; ZWO asi 120mm guide camera; Orion 50mm Guide Scope

Processing: Total Time: 18h 5min;
1. Stacking and calibration with Darks/Flats/Flat-Darks in PixInsight
2. DBE for each channel
3. BlurXterminator & NoiseXterminator
4. Starnet star removal
5. Channel combination with custom pixelmath formula (details in PDF) for a unique palette!
6. Generalized hyperbolic stretch
7. Synthetic Luminance layer created
8. LRGB combination with synthetic luminance for detail recovery
9. Cosmic Photons Narrowband Normalization to rebalance colours
10. Curves transformation, local histogram equalization and unsharp mask
11. RGB stars combined and calibrated using SPCC
12. Star stretching using Seti astrosuite statistical star stretch
13. Star recombination
14. Cosmic Clarity Super Resolution script upscaling
15. Photoshop for star masking and reduction, artifact removal with spot healing brush
16. Lightroom HSL colour correction and export

Honourable Mention

Photo by: Beverly Bambury

Object: NGC 7000 Cygnus Wall

Date Taken: Various nights – Sept 2025

Location: Streetsville and Port Credit, Mississauga, Ontario

Equipment: ASI585MC-AIR, SVBony SV503 80mm ED Doublet Refractor, SV220 7 nm Ha and 0iii narrowband filter, Skywatcher HEQ5 tracking mount

Processing: Used Siril for stacking and most editing. I did sharpening and denoising with SETI Astro Suite Cosmic Clarity. Minor touchups in GIMP

General Category: Astroscape

Winner:

Photo by: Kirby Alguire

Object: Polar Star Trails and Perseid Meteors (in lower left corner)

Date Taken: August 19, 2025

Location: Zion Red Rock Oasis, Rockville, UT, USA

Equipment: Canon EOS 70D DSLR with Canon 15mm Fisheye Lens. No Filters.

Processing: 191 30-second subs at F2.8 and ISO 800. 96 minutes total time lapse. Stacking in StarstaX. Brightness and colour adjustment in Photoshop.

Second Place

Polar Star Trails over Utah Resort - By Kirby Alguire

Photo by: Kirby Alguire

Object: Polar Star Trails over UT Resort

Date Taken: Aug 20, 2025

Location: Zion Red Rock Oasis, Rockville, UT, USA

Equipment: Canon EOS 70D DSLR with Canon 15mm Fisheye Lens. No Filters.

Processing : 175 30-second subs at F4.5 and ISO 800. 88 minutes total time lapse. Separate exposure for the foreground. Stacking in StarstaX. Photoshop layering and masking to bring in the foreground sub, adjust brightness and colour.

Honourable Mention

Photo by: Kirby Alguire

Object: Aurora Borealis

Date Taken: September 29, 2025

Location: Charleston Lake, ON, Canada

Equipment: Canon EOS 70D DSLR with Canon EF 15mm Fisheye Lens. No Filters.

Processing : 15-seconds at F3.5 and ISO 1600. Photoshop to adjust brightness and colour.

Youth Division:

The Youth Division is open to members who are 25yrs old or younger.

Winner:

Photo by: Henry Li

Object: Luna

Date Taken: November 11, 2025

Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Equipment: Vixen VSD90SS, ZWO AM3 mount, ZWO ASI2600mc pro, ASIair mini, ZWO 30mm f/5 guide scope, and ZWO EAF

Processing: Colour calibration, background extraction, stretching, and cropping were done in Siril

Second Place

Photo by: Meera Mohindra

Object: M45 – The Pleiades

Date Taken: Oct 28 & Nov 18, 2025

Location: Lake Superior Provincial Park: Agawa Bay – Ontario, Canada

Equipment: Stock Canon EOS Rebel SL3, Rokinon f2 135mm, IOptron Skyhunter.

Processing: Data collected over two nights: 135 x 45sec at 1600 iso + 69 x 50 sec at 1600 iso. Processed with Pixinsight and Lightroom; Stacked and processed primarily with Pixinsight, Contrast, clarity, and colour tweaks in Lightroom