Damian Peach

Damian’s interest in astronomy began around the age of 10 when he first started reading books on the subject at school and quickly became enthralled by the spectacular photographs that graced their pages. Then further inspired by well-known astronomers such as Patrick Moore and Donald Parker, over the last 25 years he has gone on to develop his expertise within the field of Astrophotography, and is now widely considered one of the foremost Astrophotographers in the world. Over his career his images have appeared in countless books, magazines and science papers. He has also appeared numerous times on television within the UK promoting astronomy and astrophotography, often on the well-known Sky at Night TV program with Sir Patrick Moore. He is also authored and co-authored many articles, book chapters and science papers on the Planets. He has also regularly lectured both at home and abroad on astrophotography. He was awarded both the British Astronomical Associations Merlin Medal and the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers Walter Haas award for outstanding contributions to Planetary astronomy. In 2009 he was part of a record setting team that produced the largest ground based image mosaic of the Moon ever taken. He was featured in the acclaimed national Explorers of the Universe photographic exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall and also had his work featured at the Edinburgh Science Festival. His work was used by NASA and ESA to illustrate the importance and quality of amateur planetary images to help support the upcoming JUNO and JUICE missions at Jupiter. In 2011 he was crowned overall winner of the Royal Greenwich Observatory Astrophotographer of the year competition, and was a prizewinning finalist in 2012 - 2015. In 2017 asteroid 27632 was re-named in his honor for his contributions to astrophotography over the past 20 years.  He also won 1st place in the National Science Foundation's Comet ISON photo competition for his spectacular image of the comet which was used by the media throughout the world during the comet's close approach to the Sun. He is also author to two popular astrophotography tutorial DVDs which went on to become very successful.

APODs Received:

• Shadows Across Jupiter (February 15, 2013) – using a C14
• Comet Lovejoy with M44 (November 9, 2013) – using a C11
• Lovejoy in the New Year (January 3, 2014) – using a C9.25
• Spica, Mars, and Eclipsed Moon (April 16, 2014) – using a C14
• Comet Siding Spring Passes Mars (October 20, 2014) – using a C14
• Jupiter, Ganymede, Great Red Spot (May 15, 2015) – using a C14
• Rings and Seasons of Saturn (June 21, 2015) – using a C14
• NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide (September 9, 2015) – using a C14
• Rosetta and Comet Outbound (November 28, 2015) – using a C14
• The Great Nebula in Carina (March 23, 2016) – using a C14
• Ganymede's Shadow (March 25, 2017) – using a C14
• Two Comets and a Star Cluster (October 2, 2017) – using a C14
• Blue Comet PanSTARRS (January 12, 2018) 
• Mars Approach (June 18, 2018)