Image Recognition and Honors
Oct 28, 2021: My Images are being used in a Theater Production!
Our local Blackfriar Theater Group is putting on a production of “Silent Sky”, This is the story of Henrietta Leavitt, who began working at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, at a time when women were not allowed to touch a telescope or express an original idea. Instead, she joins a group of women “computers”.
Blackfriars saw the images on my website and asked for permission to use some of those images for their production. I was honored! You can learn more about it HERE. The production is underway was a success, and I understand they had been getting standing ovations. Congratulations Blackfriars.
Every once and while, I get contacted for permission to use my images for one purpose or another. I am honored by these requests and thought it might be nice to have an area of the website where I could document these!
August 2025: Referenced in a Scientific Paper!
I never could have imagined that one of my images would be referenced in a formal scientific paper, but this actually just happened!
I was contacted by Alexa Friederich Hidalgo, who is a master's student in astrophysics at the Institute of Astronomy (UNAM, Mexico).
She was currently preparing a scientific article on the planetary nebula Abell 71, which is being submitted to the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).
She was asking permission to use or at least reference my image of SH2-115 and Abell 71.
The Production Flyer
The Credit Page of the flyer…
I was happy to give permission for this and asked that she contact me once the article was printed.
A while later, she got back to me with a link to the article - my image is mentioned in the last paragraph of Section 4.2, and is also listed in the reference section:
Tracing the ISM–PN interaction: a morphokinematic study of Abell 71
How cool is that!! It’s always interesting to me to learn more about what I have captured in my images. This article goes into some depth and was a great read!
September 2025: My Images are being used for a Bicycle Club’s Jersey!
A while back, I received an interesting request.
ASSOS of Switzerland, a cycling clothing company, and its USA branch were working with the Southern California Velo cycling club to create a custom cycling Jersey. They were wondering if I would permit them to use my image of Messier 16 - the Eagle Nebula for this Jersey.
This has always been my favorite image of this impressive target, and I thought the blue colors from the SHO Pallete would look great on a jersey.
I granted permission, and we discussed how the design would be used. The jersey came out and looked amazing. They sent me a complimentary jersey, which I have now framed and hung in my observatory.
And here is the Jersey:
September 2025: Rochester Museum and Science Center Display
I am a member of AS-RAS (The Astronomy Section of the Rochester Academy of Science), and we have a relationship with the Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC).
They have been preparing for a major new "Astronaut" exhibit, and as part of this, they wanted to decorate some large columns in the Museum’s Cafe with space images.
They reviewed images printed in our AS-RAS newsletter and selected several that they were interested in using. One of the images was my Image of NGC 7822 - The Central Portion of the Question Mark Nebula.
They reached out and asked permission to use this image, and I was happy to agree.
They now call these columns the Astro Pillars, and this past Thursday, October 16th, the new exhibit launched. As part of this, the Astro Pillars were also unveiled.
Here is a poster on the wall near the pillars describing the selected images. As you can see, they've selected a fantastic set of images from talented individuals in AS-RAS!
December 2025: BBC Sky @ Night Magazine published a year-end list of the "Top astrophotography captures of 2025."
I was surprised to see my image of SH2-54 - The Serpent Nebula was included on this list!
Thanks, BBC Sky @ Night!
Here is the image that was selected:
https://cosgrovescosmos.com/projects/sh2-54
And here is a link to the overall list:
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astro.../best-images-2025
June 2022: My Image of Messier 31 was used as a gift for the Keynote Speaker.
The IEEE Rochester Chapter recently had a Joint Chapters Meeting and a Digital Camera Milestone Ceremony celebrating the invention of the Digital Camera.
The invention of the digital camera is kind of a big deal, as you might appreciate - even more so in that it makes the kind of Astrophotography that I do possible!
That invention was created by Steve Sasson at Eastman Kodak back in 1975. I had the great fortune to work with Steve. Little did he know at the time the impact his invention would have on the world!
As a gift to the Keynote Speaker, I was approached and asked if they could present a framed Print of one of my Astrophotos.
I was happy to oblige.
They chose my most recent version of Messier 31 - The Andromeda Galaxy.
Below is the link to that image on my website:
https://cosgrovescosmos.com/projects/m31-lhargb
And here is the IEEE Newsletter covering this event:
October 2022: The Web DeepSky Society has named my M31 image as their “Picture of the Month.”
I was recently contacted by the webmaster for the Webb Deepsky Society and asked if they could use my Image of M31 on their website as their “Picture of the Month.” The Webb Society promotes visual observation of deepsky objects and variable star observation. I was honored to be asked and, of course, was happy for this to occur! Thank you, Webb Deepsky Society!
https://www.webbdeepsky.com/picture-of-the-month/archive/2022/10
The M31 Image PRoject post can be seen HERE.