Over the moon!

ACE photographic protŽgŽ Jathin Premjith has won another international accolade ... this time for capturing a spectacular shot of the moon.

Judges 'Highly Commended' his entry into the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition which attracted 540 entries from 25 countries.

The 13-year-old Asian School student's image was taken on the terrace of his home in Umm Al Hassam using a Canon EOS 50D DSLR camera with an 18-55mm lens attached to a telescope.

Jathin said: "Being a beginner in astro-photography I thought I should start taking images of the moon and carefully focussing to get the right shot. I'm delighted to have received this recognition."

The contest was organised by the London Royal Observatory in Greenwich in association with the BBC Sky at Night magazine. The judges said they were spellbound by the way he captured the prominence of some of the moon's craters which gave 'life' to the whole picture. To create this effect the photo was taken the day after the full moon.

Jathin was the only person from the region as well as Asia to have his photograph chosen amidst prize winners from the US, UK, Australia and Ireland.

His father and mentor Premjith Narayanan, general manager of Alstom Power Service of Bahrain and Qatar, said: "It was a very special moment for all of us as it was also the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating 400 years of the first recorded astronomical observations by Galileo Galilei made by a telescope."

The competition was judged by a panel of 10 experts. Will Gater, a journalist with Sky at Night magazine, said in an email to Jathin: "It's an image that I was very impressed with on the judging day and I'm sure the other judges were impressed too. The images look superb in the exhibition."

Jathin's photographic skills first shot to fame during the Formula One race at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir last year when he made use of his father's old Canon equipment to practice taking moving images.

One of his photographs was chosen for publication in the renowned PhotoPlus Canon International magazine.

Jathin's interest in photography is all thanks to Mr Narayanan, an ardent fan of cameras. With practice, he has also developed a keen interest in astronomy and one of the family's favourite hobbies is to carry their extensive range of camera equipment and telescopes and computer software to the terrace on weekdays or the Bahrain Sailing Club on weekends.

The schoolboy has now set his sights on winning this year's astronomy photographic contest.