``Everyone thinks of a star, but I thought this would be original. It's lucky the judges thought the same.

``It's pretty exciting to win especially as 2009 is the international year of astronomy.''

The competition in question is the Gemini School of Astronomy contest.

The student is a 15-year-old mathematics and science wizard.

And the object is a cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and plasma.

``It is called the NGC 6751, but it is known as the Glowing Eye, because it looks like a multicoloured eye,'' the year 10 student said.

``The task was to choose an object that the Gemini South telescope in Chile one of the biggest telescopes

in the world could make an image of and I thought this was really interesting and made you realise there a lot of

different things in space.''

Daniel's hard work will be rewarded with the image to be on the cover of Australia Sky and Telescope magazine in early 2010.

His class will also take part in an interactive video link-up with scientists in the Gemini control room.

David Lee, Daniel's teacher, said the prize was a reward for his student's enthusiasm and the research heundertook in his own time.

``Daniel had to do what astronomers do make a case for why it would be a great thing for the Gemini South telescope to make a picture of this object and it was great he was able to win,'' Mr Lee said.

THE GLOWING EYE NEBULA

NGC 6751 is a planetary nebula located in the high-flying constellation Aquila. It was selected in April 2000 to mark the 10th anniversary of Hubble in orbit. It is estimated to be around 0.8 light years in diameter

and 6500 light years away from Earth. It was formed when a star collapsed and threw off its outer layer of gas several thousand years ago.