Tunc Tezel is a leading amateur astronomer and astrophotographer from Turkey. He has been fascinated by the night sky since childhood and takes dramatic photographs of astronomical phenomena like solar eclipses, planetary conjunctions near the Moon, and time-lapses of meteors. Some of his notable photos include a 2012 transit of Venus across the Sun from Azerbaijan and Baily's beads during a solar eclipse in Russia. He travels globally to capture images of the Milky Way from locations in the southern hemisphere like the Cook Islands.

1. Astrophotographer
TUNC TEZEL

2. MEET TUNC TEZEL…

3. WHO IS TUNC TEZEL?
o Leading amateur astronomer and night sky photographer
o Born in Bursa, Turkey on June 2, 1977…Lives in Turkey
o Intrigued in the night sky since he was a little boy
o First record of night observation on February 29, 1992 using very basic equipment
o Graduated with a civil engineering degree in 2002
o Took photos with wide angled lenses
o Loved to hike and be a part of nature to capture the night sky of his country
o Also interested in solar eclipses which ultimately brought him publicity and
publications
o Specialty capturing rare conjunctions and occulations of bright stars, planets, and
bright clusters near the moon.
o Creates dramatic all sky and time-lapse photographs of meteors and motions of
cosmos

4. Venus Transit over Caspian Sea…
A distorted Sun with a
"blemish" on its face rises over
Caspian Sea in this multi-
exposure of the 2012 Transit
of Venus taken from Suvelan,
near Baku, Azerbaijan.
During the transit —the last
one until 2117— Venus crossed
between Earth and the Sun, so
that observers could see a
black dot gliding over the solar
disk.
The Sun appears squashed in
this frame because more of its
light is being bent by the thick
layers of Earth's atmosphere
(Tezel).

5. The Solar Eclipse…
This is a time lapse series of
Baily's Beads in the last 5
seconds leading to the second
contact of the total solar
eclipse, as seen from near
Novosibirsk. Russia.
Photo details: 8" Meade
LX10 SCT, Canon EOS
5D camera at ISO 400 and 12
exposures of 1/2000 seconds
each (Tezel).

6. Heavenly Window…
Starry sky as
photographed from the
giant window of False
Kiva in Canyonlands
National Park in
eastern Utah, USA.
In the night sky
constellation Scorpius
and Sagittarius appear
on the left (toward the
bright central bulge of
the galaxy) and planet
Saturn is the brighter
point on the right, just
above bright star Spica
in Virgo (Tezel).

7. Galactic Paradise…
This heavenly view of the southern Milky Way
arching in the sky is photographed from a
remote island in the Pacific Ocean.
On the left the brightest region in the band
of Milky Way is the galactic central bulge
toward the constellations Sagittarius and
Scorpius.
Bright stars of Alpha and Beta Centauri, the
Southern Cross, and the Coalsack dark nebula
appear in the right along the fading Milky
Way band.
This pacific paradise in the southern
hemisphere is Mangaia, the most southerly of
the Cook Islands.
This volcanic remnant has the distinction of
being the oldest island in the Pacific dating
back to about 18 million years ago. As noted
by the photographer "I traveled to this 10 km
wide island with only 500 Polynesian residents
because the total solar eclipse path of 11 July
2010 was passing over this location“ (Tezel).
This photo was a winner of Astrophotographer
of the Year 2011 competition of Royal
Museums Greenwich in Earth and Space
category.

8. WORKS CITED
• "Solar Eclipse Gallery: August 1, 2008, Page 7." Solar Eclipse Gallery: August 1, 2008, Page 7.
SpaceWeather.com, n.d. Web. 02 June 2014.
• "TWAN Bio for "Tunc Tezel“ "TWAN Bio for "Tunc Tezel" TWAN, n.d. Web. 02 June 2014.