Kavan Chay is a landscape and astrophotographer based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Solo hiking and astrophotography are Chay's passions, with the diverse landscapes and clear night skies of New Zealand as the main focus of the work. Chay's interest in photography began around 2012, and astrophotography followed a period of travel in 2018. By late 2019, Chay was dedicating more time to photography.
Chay's photograph Crown of Light, taken at Tumbledown Bay, New Zealand, during an Aurora Australis display, was published as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on 17 May 2024. In 2025, the same photograph won the Aurorae category of the Royal Museums Greenwich ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Chay's photograph Evolution of Stars : Karitane, shot at Karitane Beach as a return to an earlier 2022 image, was published as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on 2 July 2025. Chay's images have also been selected for Capture the Atlas's Milky Way Photographer of the Year collection in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
