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The Royal Observatory Greenwich announces its Astronomy Photographer Of The Year shortlisted images for the 2023 competition.
34 images in all have been shortlisted from thousands of entries from all over the world.
These shortlisted images include star trails over the First World War trench memorial in Vimy, northern France, the Milky Way over an abandoned diamond processing plant in Namibia, and Jupiter flanked by two of its moons, Io and Europa.
Awe-inspiring scenes of the Milky Way, vibrant star trails racing across the night sky and spiral galaxies are all features of the shortlist for this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year.
Let us take a look at the remaining 17 of them in this final part of the feature
Colourful Saturn by Damian Peach
A photograph of Saturn at opposition, the view captures the ring system and coloured bands and zones in its atmosphere.
The Cassini Division, the almost 5,000 km-wide gap between the two main ring structures is clearly seen.
Taken with a Celestron C14 EdgeHD telescope, Losmandy G11 mount, Player One Saturn-M SQR camera, 8,000 mm f/22, 50,000 single frames combined through RGB filters x 0.02-second exposure
Location: Marley Vale, Barbados, United Kingdom
Dance of the Moons by Damian Peach
Jupiter flanked by two of its many moons, Io and Europa.
Europa is the icy white moon casting a shadow onto the 'surface' of Jupiter, and Io is the yellowy-orange lava-covered circle on the lower left.
The Great Red Spot is clearly seen with the shadow of Europa cutting across its southern edge.
Taken with a Celestron C14 EdgeHD telescope, Losmandy G11 mount, Player One Saturn-M SQR camera, 8,000 mm f/22, 50,000 single frames combined through RGB filters x 0.02-second exposure
Location: Marley Vale, Barbados, United Kingdom
C/2021 A1 (Leonard) in Sky of Israel by Alex Savenok
C/2021 A1 (Comet Leonard) captured over the Negev desert, Israel.
The comet made its closest approach to Earth in 2021–2022 and was highly visible with a clear tail.
Comet Leonard was destroyed by an orbit which took it close to the Sun.
Taken with a Nikon Z7 II camera, 70–300 mm lens, ISO 4000; Sky: 250 mm f/5.6, 22 x 30-second exposures (lights), 30 x darks, 50 x flats (tracked and stacked); Foreground: 240 mm f/5.6
Location: Negev desert, Israel
St Agnes by Derek Horlock
The Milky Way over the Isles of Scilly. Taken on the remote island St Agnes, the lack of light pollution allows for a breathtaking number of stars.
Taken with a Nikon Z6 II camera; Sky: 35 mm (6 images panned) f/2.8, ISO 800, 6 x 180-second exposures; Foreground: 24 mm f/8, ISO 800, 100-second exposure
Location: St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom
Comet 2022 E3 Above Snowy Mount Etna by Dario Giannobile
This image shows Comet 2022 E3 soaring over Mount Etna, Sicily as volcanic vapours sweep over the crater. The glowing turquoise green of the comet contrasts with the night sky and snowy landscape.
Taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, Sigma art 150–600 mm lens, Lightach II Fornax, 293 mm f/7.1; Sky: ISO 3200, 27 x 45-second exposures; Landscape: ISO 320, 2 x 180-second exposures
Location: Mount Etna, Sicily, Italy
Celestial Equator Above First World War Trench Memorial by Louis Leroux-Gere
Star trails above the preserved First World War trenches in Canadian National Vimy Memorial Park, Northern France. Taken over five hours, the camera captured the rotation of the sky revealing the colourful stars.
Taken with a Canon EOS 6D (Astro modified), Samyang XP 14 mm f/2.4 lens, 14 mm f/3.2, ISO 1000, 577 x 30-second exposures
Location: Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts de France, France
On Top of the Dream by Jeff Graphy
The Milky Way taken from the top of Pain de Sucre, on the French-Italian border. The photographer climbed the summit twice in search of optimum conditions.
The settled clouds and the pastel colours create a serene view of the mountain range.
Taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, 35 mm f/2.8, ISO 6400; Sky: 8-second exposure; Foreground: 20-second exposure
Location: Pain de Sucre, Queyras, France
Dune by Burak Esenbey
The Milky Way over the White Desert National Park, Egypt. Venus is clearly seen just above the horizon.
Taken with a Sony ILCE-7S (Astro modified) camera, MoveShootMove mount, 18 mm f/2.8, ISO 1000, 4 x 181-second exposures
Location: White Desert National Park, Egypt
Solargraph 209 days by Ksawery Wróbel
Solargraphs are photographs taken with a homemade pinhole camera, and can be used to capture the Sun's path across the sky.
Each streak of light in the solargraph image represents one day. Missing light streaks indicate that the sun is obstructed by cloud cover.
Taken with a Homemade 'Eye of Sparrow' pinhole camera, 23.5 mm f/130, 209 days total exposure
Location: Bloomingdale, Illinois, USA
RCW 58: Wolf Rayet Bubble by Mark Hanson; Mike Selby
RCW58 is a Wolf Rayet bubble nebula. It is formed from the ejecta of the star WR 40, which shines from the centre of the bubble.
Taken with a PlaneWave CDK 1000 and CDK 700 telescopes, Chroma filters, FLI 16803 and QHY461 cameras, 6,000 mm f/6 and and 4,550 mm f/6.5, multiple 60-second RGB exposures, 30 minutes total exposure per channel, multiple 600-second H-alpha exposures, 19 hours 40 minutes total exposure, multiple 900-second OIII exposures, 13 hours total exposure
Location: El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Chile
Pleione's Daughters by Andre Vilhena
The Pleiades star cluster contains about 1,000 stars at about 440 light years away, but only the brightest are visible to the naked eye.
Taken with a TS-Optics Photoline APO 800/115 telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount, QHY 268M camera, 634 mm focal length 115 mm aperture, 149 x 180-second Luminance exposures, 98 x 180-second RGB exposures
Location: Santa Susana, Portugal
Jellyfish Nebula by Peter Larkin
The Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443) is a supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Gemini. Here, the stars have been removed from the image in order to focus on the delicate nebulous structures.
Taken with a Celestron RASA 8 telescope, Baader highspeed H-alpha, S and O filters, Celestron CGX mount, ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro camera, 400 mm f/2, ISO 100, multiple 60-second exposures, approx. 11 hours total exposure time
Location: Coppet, Vaud, Switzerland
The Majestic Tarantula Nebula by Steeve Body
The Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Capturing the Tarantula Nebula's intricate details and vibrant hues is a challenging task that requires precision and patience.
Narrowband filters have been used for the nebulosity and RGB filters for the stars, so they are in natural colours.
Taken with a Askar 107 PHQ telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro mount, ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera, 749 mm f/7, Gain 139 for H-alpha, OIII and SII and Gain 0 for RGB, 45 x 600-second H-alpha exposures, 45 x 600-second OIII exposures, 24 x 600-second SII exposures, 40 x 45-second exposures for each RGB filter, 24 hours total exposure time
Location: Bentleigh, Victoria, Australia
Radio Polaris by João Yordanov Serralheiro
Star trails taken over a deactivated radio telescope antenna. The image was achieved with a simple remote shutter locked for continuous images.
Taken with a Sony ILCE-7M2 camera, 28 mm f/2, ISO 200, 124 x 30-second exposures
Location: Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Eastern Veil: NGC6992/6995 by Jia You
The Veil Nebula is a supernova remnant in the Cygnus constellation.
The photographer experimented with narrowband filters for the first time to achieve the detail and structure.
Taken with a Sky Rover 102APO telescope, Antlia 3nm filter, Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro mount, ZWO-ASI2600MM-Cool camera, Gain 100, 714 mm f/7, 30 x 900-second (H-alpha x 20, OIII x 10) exposures
Location: Jiuliancheng town, Hebei Province, China
The Milky Way by Kush Chandaria
A photograph of the Milky Way taken in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Due to the lack of light pollution, Chandaria could see the Milky Way clearly with the naked eye.
Taken with a Sigma Art 40 mm telescope, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Pro mount, CanonEOS Ra camera, 40 mm f/1.4, ISO 1600, 10 x 10-second exposures
Location: Okavango Delta, Botswana
Cassinified Pluto by Sergio Díaz Ruiz
Taking inspiration from Jean-Dominique Cassini's Carte de la Lune c. 1679, an early scientific map of the Moon, Ruiz used NASA data to generate a monochrome image of Pluto.
Using this image Ruiz converted pixel intensities to line thickness, in order to simulate an engraved print.
Ruiz used the colour palette from Cassini's Carte de la Lune provided by the Library of the Utrecht University, and then added ripples and noise effects to the background, emulating a more realistic finish.
That's the remaining 17 of 34 shortlisted entries.
The competition, now in its fifteenth year, returns with an expert panel of judges from the worlds of art and astronomy.
The winners of the competition's nine categories, two special prizes and the overall winner will be announced on Thursday, September 14, 2023.
After which the winning images will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum from Saturday, September 16, alongside a selection of exceptional shortlisted images.
Published with permission from The Royal Observatory Greenwich.
Photographs curated by Rajesh Karkera/ Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com