The Royal Observatory’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest

Instead of readers’ wildlife today (I’m saving up), let’s see some entries from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest. The shortlisted entires have been reproduced in several places. The ones below are below from the Times, but Forbes also has an array, with this note:

The world’s most prestigious competition for cosmic images has revealed its shortlist—and it’s packed with wonder.

From the Moon and eclipses to comets and the northern lights, the shortlisted images for this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year have been plucked from over 3,000 entries from amateur and professional photographers in 67 countries.

Organized by London’s Royal Observatory Greenwich and sponsored by Liberty Specialty Markets and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, this 14th annual competition will announce its winners on September 15, 2022.

The Times reports that the photos are on exhibit at Britain’s National Maritime Museum, which also happens to be in Greenwich.

Click on the screenshot to see them all (beware as the Times of London, where this was published, often uses a paywall); I’ll show my favorite six (with credits, of course), but there are 15, all gems. The paper’s captions are indented; click on the photos to enlarge them.

A partial eclipse of the Sun shot from Romano d’Ezzelino in the Veneto region of Italy on June 10 last year. It was a day of low solar activity, enabling the photographer to capture this unusually crisp image of the Moon’s silhouette. ALESSANDRO RAVAGNIN

The Northern Lights are reflected in the still waters of a lake in Alberta, Canada. SHANE TURGEON

There are lots of pictures of the Sun.

Clouds of hydrogen gas give way as the magnetic field lines of the Sun snap and clash together. This display of nature, taken from Los Angeles, creates astonishing features, known as prominences. SIMON TANG

Chidiya Tapu, in India, is rich in flora and fauna. Far from city lights, the nature reserve in the Andaman Islands archipelago is ideal base for wide-field astrophotography. Here, the Milky Way seems to mirror the water on its course. VIKAS CHANDER

The Soul nebula and its core, as seen from China. To its east is a complex of nebulae and star clusters known as the Heart nebula. Together they are often referred to as Heart and Soul. NAN WANG, BINYU WANG

This must have been taken near Death Valley (or the Panamint Valley), places where I’ve spent months collecting flies.  So I suppose this is my favorite.

Viewed from California under a quadruple arch, the stars circle around Polaris, in this stack of 33 four-minute exposures. The Sierra Nevada mountain range fills the horizon and Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental United States, is on the far left. SEAN GOEBEL

h/t: Malcolm, Ginger K.