Dylan O'Donnell

Dylan O'Donnell is an Australian IT entrepreneur and amateur photographer, whose astrophotography has been featured by the European Space Agency (ESA), and NASA. In 2019, O'Donnell graduated from Swinburne Astronomy Online (SAO).

Astrophotography career After visiting the Kennedy Space Center, O'Donnell, already a hobby photographer, became interested in astronomy. He bought a telescope and took up astrophotography. His photos have been published several times on the websites of NASA and the ESA.

Having set up an observatory behind his house in Byron Bay, O'Donnell began submitting his astrophotographs to a variety of websites, He photographed Comet 252P/LINEAR passing through the Large Magellanic Cloud; it was published on the main page of National Geographic's website on March 21, 2016.

In April 2019, he took part in the U.S. Northeast Astronomy Forum in New York as a featured speaker.

Projects

Star Stuff festival O'Donnell is the founder of the annual Star Stuff festival of space, science and astronomy, which took place in Byron Bay in 2017 and 2018. The festival promoted the preservation of dark skies from light pollution and other electronic interference. He made a proposal to his community, which resulted in plans for the festival.

Astronomy Picture of the Day O'Donnell has been awarded with the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) by NASA twice. The first was published on the APOD website on March 20, 2015, entitled "Sunshine, Earthshine". "Earth Shine" depicts the moon 14 hours after perigee, the point where the moon is closest to the earth. The second, published on July 31, 2015, titled "The ISS and a Colorful Moon", captured the ISS transiting across the moon.

Awards

2015: Member of the Year from the Southern Astronomical Society. 2016: Honourable Mention, David Malin Awards. 2017: Member of the Year from the Southern Astronomical Society. 2017: Achievement Award from the Queensland Astronomical Societies. 2018: Editors Pick in the Solar System Category, David Malin Awards.