About Cosmic Kiwi

I am an amateur astronomer based in Dunedin, New Zealand.

I have had a long interest in space and astronomy, including assisting with an aerospace medical research project with NASA in the USA when I was finishing medical school. I have now embarked on capturing the southern sky with my own equipment. My main interest is imaging low surface brightness objects that are rarely imaged, and also performing spectroscopy. I try to find some scientific value in the projects I work on, and have been involved in a number of collaborations with both professional and other amateur astronomers.

Achievements

Discovered 14 new planetary nebula candidates, registered in the professional HASH database
First image to reveal the OIII shockwave of the Antlia supernova remnant, which was published in the Astrophysical Journal
First amateur image to reveal the full extent of the OIII and Ha bow shock of Zeta Oph
First image of the outer OIII emission clouds associated with the relativistic jet of Centaurus A.
First image to show a continuous Ha jet extending from Centaurus A nucleus to the outer filament, this data was presented at the 2022 IAU general assembly
First detection of Ha emission from a satellite galaxy of Centaurus A
First published image of the Engima Nebula

Highly commended deep sky section 2021 NZ astrophotography competition.
Shortlisted 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in Galaxy section.
Shortlisted 2022 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in Galaxy section.
Highly Commended 2022 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in Galaxy section.
Shortlisted 2022 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in Nebula section, with 2 images.
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Image of the day

Astrobin Image of the day

Featured images

NASA APOD sky Facebook

NASA APOD universe view screen

Publications

The Astrophysical Journal

Far UV and Optical Emissions from Three Very Large Supernova Remnants Located at Unusually High Galactic Latitudes
Authors: Robert A. Fesen, Marcel Drechsler, Kathryn E. Weil, Xavier Strottner, John C. Raymond, Justin Rupert, Dan Milisavljevic, Bhagya M. Subrayan, Dennis di Cicco, Sean Walker, David Mittelman, Mathew Ludgate.
The Astrophysical Journal 2021 920 90

Astronomy Photographer of the Year

Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Collection 10, by Royal Observatory Greenwich. Published by HarperCollins Publishers 2021
Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Collection 11, by Royal Observatory Greenwich. Published by HarperCollins Publishers 2022