Golden eclipse wins Astronomy Photographer of the Year, dancing atoms and molecules, tactile illusions

24 Sep 2021 Hamish Johnston

Award winning: The Golden Ring by Shuchang Dong is the 2021 winner of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year. (Courtesy: Shuchang Dong)

Chinese photographer Shuchang Dong has beaten thousands of amateur and professional photographers from around the world to win the 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year. The award – now in its 13th year – is run by the UK’s Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with insurer Liberty Specialty Markets and BBC Sky at Night Magazine. Dong’s image – The Golden Ring – depicts the annular solar eclipse that occurred on 21 June 2020 and was taken in Ali in Tibet using a Fujifilm XT-4 camera.

As well as winning the £10,000 top prize, Dong’s image will be on display along with other selected pictures at an exhibition at the observatory that opened on 18 September. The competition received over 4500 entries from 75 countries. You can find the other entries here.

From photography to dance, the artist Geraldine Cox has teamed-up with physicists at the UK’s Imperial College and professional dancers to create Elemental Dances, which is a series of six educational videos that explore the nature of atoms and molecules through dance. Aimed at children age 7–11, the videos are 20–30 min long and each one begins with a physicist giving a brief explanation of a physical phenomenon such as Brownian motion. Then the children are encouraged to explore the motion involved in the effect by dancing. Other topics covered include atomic spectra and the vibrations and rotations of a water molecule.

from physicsworld.com 24/9/2021