In his photography, graduate student Imran Sultan must overcome several obstacles: subjects that only appear in the middle of the night, the obscuring haze of Chicago’s light pollution and distances that reach thousands of light years.
But, for the second year in a row, his persistence has paid off.
Sultan’s stunningly sharp photo of Heart and Soul Nebulae — two star-forming regions located in the Cassiopeia constellation 7,000 lightyears away — won the 2024 Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition in the astronomy category.
“The fact that astronomers looked at these two nebulae and saw a ‘heart’ and a ‘soul’ highlights the human element of astronomy,” said Imran Sultan. Here, he used a telephoto lens to capture the clouds of gas and dust, or nebulae, over three nights.
“I'm thrilled and deeply honored to be selected by the Royal Society for the Astronomy award for a second year in a row,” Sultan said. “My astrophotography has allowed me so many opportunities to make astronomy more accessible to a wider audience. The fact that astronomers looked at these two nebulae and saw a ‘heart’ and a ‘soul’ highlights the human element of astronomy. We can't help but see a bit of ourselves when we look into the universe, beginning with the earliest humans who found constellations in the stars, and I love using my astrophotography to emphasize that connection.”
To snap this year’s winning photo, Sultan used a telephoto lens to capture the clouds of gas and dust, or nebulae, over three nights. Capturing the nebulae’s intricate details required time and patience.
“The picture contains nearly 14 hours of total imaging time, which was needed to capture the dim light of the nebulae from the Chicago suburbs,” Sultan said. “Another way I overcame the extreme light pollution of the bright city skies was by using a specialized filter that isolates wavelengths of light emitted by ionized gas in the Heart and Soul. In my image, I chose a color palette that highlights hydrogen in red and oxygen in shades of blue and green.”
The Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition ‘celebrates the power of photography to convey scientific phenomena happening all around us’
The annual competition “celebrates the power of photography to convey scientific phenomena happening all around us.” Judges selected winners — from more than 500 entries — for each category: astronomy, behavior, Earth science and climate, ecology and environment, and microimaging. Each category winner receives a $637 prize.
Last year, Sultan’s work garnered two awards in the competition. His photo of the Western Veil Nebula received first place, and his photo of the Flower Moon received recognition as the sole runner-up.
