A Thai photographer was among 10 winners of the seventh Earth & Sky Photo Contest organized by The World’s At Night (TWAN) organization, announced yesterday. 

 

Amateur photographer Thanakrit Santikunaporn won the “Beauty of the Night Sky” category for his work "Total Solar Eclipse from Svalbard." The photo, which was taken on Mar 20, 2015, shows a 3-minute sequence of an eclipse over the frozen landscape of Svalbard, Norway. 

 

Thanakrit, who works at The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) as an astronomer, told the TWAN website: "[It was] the first time I could observe a solar eclipse from start to end without cloud and in an extremely different environment and temperature from where I live."

 

Judge Jim Richardson said: "I found this image riveting. Seeing the course of the sun and moon, low across the sky in Svalbard, dancing their way towards the moment of eclipse and then slipping away while people in the darkness below stood transfixed; it made a fascinating scene."

 

Another judge, Tunc Tezel, said: "A total Solar eclipse would not be on top of one's list when thinking of star trail (time lapse) photography. Here is a perfect execution in difficult Arctic condition. The photographer must have taken extra care with the equipment, which could have otherwise easily frozen during this long sequence."

 

The International Earth & Sky Photo Contest has been organized since 2009 in collaboration with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and Global Astronomy Month, a program of Astronomers Without Borders (AWB), with the aim to make the public aware of an environmental issue of light pollution. This year's contest received more than 1,000 entries from 57 countries and territories.

 

You can follow Thanakrit Santikunaporn's work at www.fb.com/solutepic or 500px.com/solute.