Every year, the directors of the different sections of ASSA are given the opportunity to reward the efforts of their members by granting various awards and certificates.

Awards for 2015

Clyde Foster was awarded an Observing Certificate for his consistent high quality observations of the Moon and Planets. Clyde is a planetary imager working from the suburbs of Centurion, outside of Pretoria. He shares his images with several dedicated planetary observation networks. He has been credited with being the first observer on Earth to observe new dust storms on Mars, and has recently been monitoring atmospheric features on Saturn.

Awards for 2014

2014 was the year that saw the establishment of the ASSA image archive.  ASSA members, ranging from humble beginner to accomplished professional, rose to the challenge of filling the archive with samples of their work.  Four names stood out, however, for both the quality and volume of their work, and they were each awarded a Director’s Commendation at the 2014 ASSA Annual General Meeting.

Johan Moolman was awarded a Director’s Commendation in recognition of the thirty four images he shared with ASSA.  Most of his images were deep sky, but he has also imaged the Moon and Sun, and even a few breathtaking nightscapes.

Richard Ford was awarded a Director’s Commendation , and received special mention at the ASSA AGM in 2014, for an astonishing 306 images that he has shared with ASSA for inclusion in the archives over the past year.  Like most ASSA members, he images a lot of deep sky objects, but is not afraid to branch out into almost any other subject.  Of note is the large number of solar images he has captured, building a detailed record of sunspot activity over a period of several months.

Kos Coronaios was awarded a Director’s Commendation for his twenty five submissions.  He is heavily involved in astronomy outreach, which shows in his images:  Side-by-side comparisons of Full Moon’s (to illustrate the size of a Supermoon), comets, and other spectacular images of subjects that are popular in the public consciousness.  He is also one of the most enthusastic participants in the Astrophotography Section’s challenges.

Johan Retief was awarded a Director’s Commendation for his twenty two images.  His images range from spectacular Lunar close-ups to Solar System objects, to deep sky objects.  His images of open clusters are particularly noteworthy for managing to bring out the relative brightness and colours of the individual stars while still keeping the image natural-looking.