The best Astrophotography images of the year
Finalists for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition have been nominated by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
For the 13th consecutive year, the Royal Observatory Greenwich has organised the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. This is the largest international event of this type: over 4500 entries have been made by contestants from 75 countries this year. The stakes are high, as the overall winner (all categories combined) will not only earn £10 000, but also the glorious title of Astronomy Photographer of the Year! Images reaching the top in their respective category will all be displayed at the National Maritime Museum, which just like the Observatory is part of the Royal Museums Greenwich site in London. Added to that, the winning photographers will receive a one year’s subscription to the BBC Sky at Night magazine, which is a partner for this event.
Excitingly, many of you have participated, and some Telescope Live users' photographs have been shortlisted !
The cover image of emission nebula NGC 6188 was taken by the Cielaustral team, a French society of amateur astronomers, at the El Sauce Observatory in Chile. If this sounds familiar, it's because that's where Telescope Live's CH-1, CH-2, CH-3, CH-4, CH-5 and CH-6 telescopes are located.
Dolphin Head Nebula © Yovin Yahathugoda (Sri Lanka) Telescope Live, El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region, Chile, 14 November 2020, 25 January and 4 February 2021.
Equipment: ASA 500N telescope at f/3.8, Astrodon filters, ASA DDM85 Premium mount, FLI PL16803 camera, Ha-OIII composite, 1.5 hours total exposure
NGC 3981 © Bernard Miller (USA) Telescope Live, El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region, Chile, 24 February 2021.
Equipment: ASA RC-1000AZ telescope at f/6.8, Astrodon filters, ASA Alt-Azimuth Direct Drive Mount, FLI PL16803 camera, L-RGB composite, 34 hours total exposure
You can browse both users' Telescope Live profiles at Y. Yahathugoda and B. Miller to see additional incredible images they have produced. More shortlisted images are shown below, and you can find all of them on the Royal Observatory Greenwich website. The four upcoming images introduce you to skyscapes, a category described on the Royal Observatory Greenwich website as "photographs of landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes in which the night sky or twilight sky is a prominent feature" - quite different from the deep sky objects and Solar System objects that are observed with Telescope Live.
Glory of Damavand and Milky Way © Masoud Ghadiri (Iran) Mount Damavand, Mazandaran, Iran, 29 May 2020.
Equipment: Nikon D850 camera, Vixen Polarie mount, 24 mm f/4 lens, ISO 6400, 10 x 30-second exposures
Harmony © Stefan Liebermann (Germany) Valensole, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France, 22 June 2020.
Equipment: Sony ILCE-7M3 camera, Fornax Mounts LighTrack II mount, 16 mm f/2.8 lens.
Foreground: ISO 2500, 15 x 0.8-second exposures. Sky: ISO 2000, 5 x 120-second exposures
Château de Chambord © Benjamin Barakat (UK) Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, France, 24 June 2020.
Equipment: Sigma Art 40 mm telescope, iOptron SkyTracker Pro mount, Canon 6D Baader modified camera.
Foreground: 40 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 3200, 4 x 30-second exposures. Sky: 40 mm f/2 lens, ISO 1600, 8 x 30-second exposures
Star trails over the Lujiazui City Skyline © Daning Kai (China), Shanghai, East China, China, 13 October 2020. Equipment: Sony ILCE-7RM3 camera, 16 mm f/5.6 lens, ISO 100, 305 x 15-second exposures
The jury is composed of:
- Jon Culshaw: comedian and amateur astronomer
- Sue Prichard: Senior Curator, Arts at the Royal Museums Greenwich
- Imad Ahmed: Director of New Crescent Society
- Dr Sheila Kanani: Education, Outreach and Diversity officer for the Royal Astronomical Society
- Yuri Beletsky: of Las Campanas Observatory
- Melissa Brobby: journalist, science communicator and Social Media Officer for the Institute of Physics
- Emily Drabek-Maunder: astronomer and science communicator at the Royal Observatory Greenwich
- László Francsics: astrophotographer and chairman of the Hungarian Astrophotographers’ Association
- Alan Sparrow: Chair of the UK Picture Editors’ Guild and Director of the UK Picture Editors’ Guild Awards
- Steve Marsh: Art Editor at BBC Sky at Night Magazine
They will announced their decision on the 16th September, and the exhibition at the National Maritime Museum will open on the 18th. The next set of images is a personal shortlist of images taken among the nominated ones, showing you the other Adult competition categories.
The Star Observer © Antoni Cladera Barceló (Spain), Pont den Gil, Ciutadella, Spain, 1 July 2020.
Equipment: Nikon Z6 camera, 14 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 6400, 6 x 15-second exposures
Moonrise over Jodrell Bank © Matt Naylor (UK) Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, UK, 29 December 2020.
Equipment: Canon EOS 90D camera, Canon EF 100–400 mm lens at 286 mm f/14, ISO 100, 1/15-second exposure
The Magnetic Field of our Active Sun © Andrew McCarthy (USA), Elk Grove, California, USA, 29 November 2020.
Equipment: Coronado Solarmax III telescope at f/5, Hobym Traveller mount, ZWO ASI178MM camera, 6-millisecond exposure
Comet Neowise over Stonehenge © James Rushforth (UK) Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK, 20 July 2020.
Equipment: Nikon D850 camera, 70–200 mm lens at 100 mm f/2.8, ISO 5000, 4-second exposure
Iceland Vortex © Larryn Rae (New Zealand) Vik, Southern Region, Iceland, 31 January 2020.
Equipment: Canon EOS 5D Mark 4 camera, 16 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 6400, 20 x 6-second exposures
The Soul of Space (Close-up of the Soul Nebula) © Kush Chandaria (UK), Notting Hill, London, UK, 25–27 February 2021. Equipment: Celestron NexStar Evolution 9.25″ telescope at f/6.3, Celestron focal reducer, Astronomik filters, SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro mount, ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera, Ha-SII-OIII composite, 14.4 hours total exposure
If you can't get enough astrophotographs, I would suggest having a browse on Twitter (with the #APY13) to have a look at some of the awesome images that sadly didn't make the cut this time. Of course, you now have just under a year left to decide which of your image could give you the title of Astronomy Photographer of the Year in next year's competition!