Virginia man's photo stars in Dublin exhibition

An image captured by a Virginia man is part of a new outdoor exhibition featuring astronomy photographs that will hang at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) this month.

Dara Callinan’s image ‘Heart and Soul nebulae’ was captured from his back garden in Virginia. Nebulae are giant clouds of dust and gas in space. These two nebulae are located in the Cassiopeia constellation, at a distance of about 7,500 light-years away from Earth.

The exhibition features 23 images that have been selected from the entries to DIAS’s ‘Reach for the Stars’ astrophotography competition, which took place earlier this year.

The exhibition at 10 Burlington Road, Dublin, is free for anyone to attend, and can be viewed on the railings outside the DIAS building. Shooting stars, night-sky landscape scenes, supermoons and a variety of other astronomical scenes showcasing the talent and technical ability of the competition entrants feature in the exhibition.

Commenting on the exhibition, CEO and Registrar of DIAS, Dr. Eucharia Meehan, said: “Launching this exhibition is the final phase of our Reach for the Stars astrophotography competition, which ran for the first time this year. We are delighted to be able to showcase some of the fantastic images that were submitted and share the talent and creativity of the photographers with the public.

“As an Institute that carries out research in astronomy and astrophysics, these images resonate greatly with us here and we appreciate the time and patience that went into capturing them. We hope people stop by to enjoy them, and appreciate their complexity.”