AWESOME PHOTOS: The beauty of the starry sky

From Comet Lovejoy in the southern skies to the aurora borealis over Iceland, the winners of the 2012 International Earth & Sky Photo Contest found beauty in darkness and showed the threat of increasing light pollution.

The Earth and Sky Photo Contest, organised recently by The World at Night foundation, Global Astronomy Month, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, received numerous entries that illustrated how important and amazing the starry sky is, how it affects our lives.

A large percentage of the participants were from the United States, China, India, England, Austria, Iran, Canada, and Germany.

Take a look at the award-winning entries.

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First place in the Beauty of Night Sky category went to this wide-angle shot of Comet Lovejoy over Australia. The rising morning twilight, zodiacal light, and Magellanic Clouds are all well framed. This deceptively simple-looking image illustrates the true secret of skyscape photography: being in the right place at the right time.

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First place in the Against the Lights category went to Norbert Span, who captured the sky above the city Innsbruck in the Austrian Alps. The Alps preserve some of the last remaining dark skies in Europe, so controlling light pollution in the nearby cities is essential to protect this unique natural heritage.

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The rugged peaks of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Italian Alps are famous among mountain climbers and landscape photographers, but few have attempted to capture their nighttime beauty. German astrophotographer Cristoph Otawa won second place in the Beauty of the Night Sky category with this 3-hour-long circumpolar startrail image. It shows a natural combination of stars and night-time landscape lights, considering that digital startrails images often lack star colors or display the sky filled with too many stars because of high ISO settings or oversaturated processing.

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Stephane Vetter won third place in the Beauty of the Night Sky category with this aurora over Iceland's Arctic Henge, which was constructed in modern times to celebrate the midnight Sun. With solar activity approaching its expected maximum in 2013, the Earth and Sky contest saw a remarkable number of aurora photos, many taken in March 2012.

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Fourth place in the Against the Lights category again went to Norbert Span, this time for a photo of the floodlights of a ski resort in the Tyrolean Alps overwhelming the beauty of the starry sky.

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Fifth place in the Beauty of Night Sky category: 'Countryside Milky Way' by Eric Hines. The peaceful image shows the summer Milky Way and starry sky over a countryside road in Wyoming, United States.

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Fifth place in the Against the Lights category: "Sky above the Ancient Persia" by Majid Ghohroodi. The photo shows the lights of nearby towns, the winter stars, and the moon between bright planets Venus and Jupiter, all shining over an ancient castle ruins in Iran central desert.

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Fourth place in the Beauty of Night Sky category: "A Moonlit Winter Night" by Thomas Neudert.

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The second place winner in the Against the Lights category is Luis Argerich for his photo "Lights or Stars". The panoramic photo from Argentina displays the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds from a countryside location where the sky is fairly dark but the horizon is dominated by increasing lights of nearby towns and far away cities

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