It is the largest astrophotography contest in the world. This year the Astronomy Photographer of the Year photography contest celebrates its 13th edition and is organized every year by the Royal Observatory of Greenwich in the United Kingdom.
The photography contest returns in 2021 with a new panel of judges in search of the most beautiful and innovative images of the cosmos captured by amateurs and professionals from around the world. The winning photo gets a prize of £ 10,000 for the overall winner and £ 1,500 for those images topping the individual categories. The winner of the Young Astronomical Photographer of the Year 2021 category will also win £ 1,500, as well as a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ telescope.
This year, the contest has received more than 4,500 entries from 75 countries and judges include BBC Sky’s art editor at Night magazine, Steve Marsh, and comedian and amateur astronomer Jon Culshaw, along with other experts from the art world. and astronomy.
The winning images will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum beginning September 18. The contest has nine categories, covering celestial landscapes, auroras, our Sun, the Moon, objects of the solar system, stars and nebulae, galaxies and a special one for young people. There are also two special awards: the Manju Mehrotra Family Trust Award for Best Newcomer and the Annie Maunder Award for Imaging Innovation, which is given to images best processed from open source data from official telescopes.
Do you already have your favorites? Photographs of lavender fields illuminated by the Milky Way and a comet passing over Stonehenge are among the nominees for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year award.
Several of the images submitted were taken by backyard astrophotographers during lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, giving a different view of the night sky, the observatory said.
The winner will be announced in an online ceremony broadcast via social media on September 16. Until then, these are some of the beautiful images that have been shortlisted this year.
