10/06/2026
📸☄️ IT’S TIME FOR OUR FOURTH ANNUAL METEORITE CALENDAR PHOTO CONTEST! ☄️📸
Believe it or not, I’m actually getting started EARLY this year! 😂
Every year I seem to wait until the last possible minute to get our calendar contest rolling, and then suddenly I’m scrambling to collect photos, choose winners, design the calendar, get everything printed and somehow have them ready in time for the holidays.
Not this year!
We have officially opened submissions for the 2027 Topherspin Meteorites Calendar Photo Contest!
We are looking for beautiful, interesting and unique photographs of REAL meteorites to feature in our 2027 calendar.
As always, the finished calendar will feature meteorite photography from members of our community, and the photographers whose images are selected will receive a FREE copy of the finished calendar!
Topher may reserve the cover and/or one calendar month for one of his own photographs, which means we expect to select approximately 11 community photographs. Topher will most likely choose one of the meteorites from the Mark Lyon Meteorites US auctions we have been managing to feature on the cover, so if you win one or more of his auctions, there is a chance your meteorite might be featured on the cover! If so, we will send you a free calendar!
📸 PHOTO REQUIREMENTS & CONTEST RULES
• Your photograph must feature a genuine, classified meteorite or a legitimately provisional meteorite.
• DO NOT submit personal finds, suspected meteorites or unidentified rocks. If you personally found the specimen, it must already be officially documented in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database to qualify.
• This contest is NOT an alternative way to have a rock identified. Please do not send us photographs of something you found hoping we will determine whether or not it is a meteorite.
• Photos must be your own original photography, or you must have clear permission from the photographer and specimen owner to submit them.
• No AI-generated images. Photographic composites or heavily manipulated images that substantially change the specimen or scene are also not permitted.
• Normal photographic editing is absolutely fine — exposure, contrast, color correction, sharpening, focus stacking, background cleanup, etc. Just keep the meteorite itself accurate and authentic.
• Landscape/horizontal photographs are strongly preferred. Remember, the calendar pages are approximately 11" wide × 8.5" tall, so horizontal images work best.
• Please avoid photographs with large logos, watermarks, text or other graphics over the image.
• Submit the highest-resolution ORIGINAL file you have. Ideally, images should be at least approximately 3,000 pixels wide.
• JPG/JPEG or PNG files ONLY. Please do not submit HEIC/HEIF, WEBP, TIFF, RAW files, PDFs or screenshots.
• Please DO NOT download your own photograph from Facebook or another social-media site and send that copy. Social-media sites heavily compress images. We need the original high-resolution file whenever possible.
• Updated rule: You may submit more than one photograph for consideration, but only one photograph per submission and each submission must feature a different meteorite. In other words, please don't send us 10 photos of the same meteorite and tell us to just pick our favorite. We don't have the time to do that, so please just send us your BEST work!
☄️ WHEN SUBMITTING, PLEASE INCLUDE:
Your full name, your country, the meteorite name/classification, the weight of the specimen if known, and whether the meteorite belongs to you or you have permission from the owner to photograph and submit it.
Please share your original high-resolution image through Google Drive or Google Photos with:
📧 [email protected]
Submitting an image gives Topherspin Meteorites permission to use the selected photograph in the 2027 calendar and to use it when promoting the calendar or photo contest. You still retain ownership of your photograph, and photographers will be credited.
We may crop photographs slightly when necessary to properly fit the calendar format.
Submitting a photograph does not guarantee selection. Final images will be chosen based on photographic quality, print resolution, composition, variety of meteorites represented and how well each photograph works within the overall calendar.
And one more important reminder because we receive these every year:
🚫 PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT PHOTOS OF ROCKS YOU FOUND THAT YOU BELIEVE MAY BE METEORITES.
Those emails will be deleted. Repeated attempts to use the contest to circumvent our Rock ID process may result in the sender being blocked.
We want this contest to be fun and to showcase the incredible meteorites and photography within our community!
🗓️ Submissions will remain open through October 31, 2026 at midnight.
So start digging through those photo folders, break out the camera, photograph something spectacular and show us your best meteorite shot! ☄️📸
We cannot wait to see what everyone comes up with this year!
