The 2023 edition of the Indian Astrophotographer of the Year contest has concluded — and the winners and shortlisted images are stunners.
The competition is organized by Astronomads Bangla, a group of four astroimagers who met during the COVID-19 pandemic and have since hosted numerous workshops at dark-sky sites across India. This year’s edition — the contest’s second — was judged by a panel of distinguished astrophotographers: Ajay Talwar, Dorje Angchuk, and Vikas Chander. A total of 751 images were submitted by 142 participants.
The winning and shortlisted images were announced in a livestream on Dec. 24, and will also be presented in an exhibition at the M. P. Birla Planetarium in Kolkata from Dec. 31, 203 through Jan. 7, 2024.
For more on the Astronomads Bangla group and the astroimaging community in India, check out the article authored by group co-founder Soumyadeep Mukherjee in our December issue.
Scroll down to see all of the winning and shortlisted images in each category.
Deep sky
Winner — Devesh Pande — The Garlic Pop Nebula
Runner-up — Pravas Deria — The Eagle Nebula
Highly Commended — Anil Kumar MN — The Pleiades
Shortlisted — Abhinav Maroti Vitekar — The Veil Nebula
Shortlisted — Aditya Kinjawadekar — Horse with a Fly
Shortlisted — Harshwardhan Pathak — NGC 7000
Shortlisted — Prabhakaran — Leo Triplet
Shortlisted — Shikhar Gupta — M81 and M82 wide-field with surrounding IFN
Nightscape
Winner — Soumya Banerjee — Stat Tso
Runner-up — Thiruchitrambalam M — Starry Hanle Night
Highly Commended — Umesh Gogna — Celestial Symphony
Shortlisted — Himanshu Kasale — Milky Way arc rising behind Sahyadri mountain range
Shortlisted — Kartik Kota — Milky Way and Lightning Sprites
Shortlisted — Naveen Chellaiah — Cosmic Butterfly
Shortlisted — Ruben — Chasing Stars
Shortlisted — Sneha Chatterjee — Milky Way in Merak
Solar system
Winner — Sona Shahani Shukla — Eclipse on Jupiter
Runner-up — Nihal S Amin — Coronal streamers
Highly Commended — Aditya Kinjawadekar — Dusty Mars
Shortlisted — Kunal Kishor Vaze — Mineral Moon
Shortlisted — Prabhakaran — Crater Plato and its surroundings
Shortlisted — Prakash Subbanna — Sun in Hydrogen-alpha
Shortlisted — Sandeep Mathur — The Omen
Shortlsited — Shivam Bansal — Moon Crossing
Best women astrophotographer
Winner — Vidya Vasudevan — Milky Way and the Mighty Mountain
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Shortlisted — Sona Shahani Shukla — The Pelican Nebula
Shortlisted — Vidya Vasudevan — Milky Way and Venus at Golden Hour
Best mobile astrophotographer
Winner — Aditya Kinjawadekar — Milky Way and the mighty Rajgad fort
Shortlisted — Karthik P — Selfie with Milky Way
Shortlisted — Subham Rath — Under the Celestial Canopy Forest Roads by Starlight
