Annular eclipse photo wins astronomical image of the year award

The overall winner of Royal Greenwich Observatory Astronomical Photographer of the Year 16 is Ryan Imperio for his photography, Distorted shadows on the Moon's surface created by an annular eclipsecapturing the progression of Baily's beads during the 2023 annular eclipse.

The image will be displayed alongside the winners of the other categories in the complementary exhibition, which will open at the National Maritime Museum on September 13.

Winner of the Sun category and overall

Distorted shadows on the Moon's surface created by an annular eclipse © Ryan Imperio (USA)

This is a continuously captured sequence of images showing the progression of Baily's pearls at third contact during the 2023 annular eclipse. Baily's pearls form when sunlight shines through valleys and craters on the Moon's surface, breaking up the familiar eclipse ring pattern, and are only visible when the Moon is entering or exiting an eclipse. They are challenging to capture due to their brevity and the precise timing required.

Shot on a Nikon D810 camera, iOptron SkyGuider Pro mount, Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens, 600mm f/8, ISO 640, multiple 1/1000 second exposures.

Winner of the Auroras category

Northern Lights in Queenstown © Larryn Rae (New Zealand)

The Aurora Australis captured over the mountains of Queenstown. This is a 19-image panorama capturing all the fast-moving rays of light that lit up the sky in February 2023. The photographer used an astrologically modified camera to capture all the pink hues of the aurora, resulting in an incredibly dynamic final image.

Shot on a modified Canon EOS R5 H-alpha camera, 35mm f/2.8 panorama, ISO 3200, Sky: 8 second exposure, Foreground: 30 second exposure.

Winner of the Our Moon category

Shadow peaks of Sinus Iridum © Gábor Balázs (Hungary)

This photograph shows Sinus Iridum, also known as the “Rainbow Bay,” a 260-kilometer-wide bay surrounded by several smaller craters. The photographer used a monochrome camera with a filter to capture the area. The crater visible in the upper right corner, Pythagoras, is particularly notable and is almost visible from the side due to libration, the wobble of the Moon as seen from Earth.

Taken with a Heyde-Zeiss refractor telescope, ZWO green filter, ZWO ASI178MM-pro camera, 4,500 mm f/15.

Location: Budapest, Hungary, September 10, 2023.

Winner of the Galaxies category

Echoes of the past © Bence Tóth, Péter Feltóti (Hungary)

This image shows the galaxy NGC 5128 and the tsunami system surrounding it, as well as a visualization of the relativistic jet, powerful jets of radiation and particles traveling at speeds close to the speed of light. This interesting target can only be photographed from the southern hemisphere, so the photographers traveled to Namibia to capture the image.

Taken with a custom 200/800 Newtonian astrographic telescope, Astronomik Deep-Sky LRGB filters, Antlia V-Pro LRGB filters and Antlia 3nm H-alpha bandpass filter, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro and Sky-Watcher EQ6 mounts, ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera, 800mm f/4, 16.2 hr L, 5.3 hr R, G, B, 5.6 hr H-alpha exposures.

Location: Isabis Farm, Namibia, 12-16, 18, 20 and 21 June 2023.

Winner of the People and Space category

High-tech silhouette © Tom Williams (United Kingdom)

This H-alpha resolution image of the Sun shows the silhouette of the International Space Station (ISS) transiting the eastern edge of the Sun. Transits of the Sun on the ISS, which cross the field of view in just 0.2 seconds, are particularly rare anywhere on Earth. The Sun was active, and a prominence can be seen just off the station's transit site.

Taken with a Sky-Watcher Evostar 120 telescope, Daystar Quark chromosphere filter, Sky-Watcher EQ3 Pro mount, Player One Apollo-M Max camera (IMX432), 4300mm f/35, ISS: 19 exposures of 0.70 milliseconds; Sol: 7500 exposures of 12 milliseconds.

Location: Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK, 15 June 2023.

Winner of the Planets, Comets and Asteroids category

On the way © Tom Williams (United Kingdom)

This false-color composite shows the phases of Venus as it approaches inferior conjunction, which is when Venus and Earth appear close to the same side of the Sun. By using ultraviolet and infrared filters, the intricate cloud structure within the planet's upper atmosphere is revealed. Even though Venus' rotation period lasts many months, the atmosphere is far from stationary, making a full revolution around the planet in about four days. This makes ultraviolet images of Venus particularly interesting, as the planet is much more dynamic than it would be if observed in the visible spectrum.

Taken with a Sky-Watcher 400P Go-To Dobsonian reflector telescope (16″), Baader Bessel (U)BVRI and RG610 filters, ZWO ASI462MM camera, 5000 mm f/12.3, multiple 15 millisecond exposures.

Location: Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK, 3, 23 June and 6 July 2023.

Winner of the Skyscapes category

Tasmanian Gems © Tom Rae (New Zealand)

This photograph shows the rugged peaks of the Tasman Valley rising up to the stunning features of the southern hemisphere summer night sky. It includes the hydrogen clouds of the Gum Nebula (central red region) and several other regions of active star formation that extend along the fainter arms of the Milky Way. This part of the night sky tends to be less photographed due to the weakness of the Milky Way band.

Shot on a Nikon Z 6 astro-modified camera and a Nikon Z7, iOptron SkyGuider Pro mount, Sigma 40mm / f/1.4 Art and Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art lenses, Sky: ISO 1,600, 40mm f/1.8, 31 exposures of 30 seconds;

Close-up: ISO 100, 28mm f/10-14, 9 exposures of 4 seconds

Location: Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand, 10 December 2023

Winner of the Stars and Nebulae category

SNR G107.5-5.2, unexpected discovery (the Nereid nebula in Cassiopeia) © Marcel Drechsler, Bray Falls, Yann Sainty, Nicolas Martino, Richard Galli (Germany, United States, France, France, France)

This stunning photograph is the result of 3,559 frames, 260 hours of exposure time, and telescopes on three continents. The team worked to explore and photograph a previously unknown, gigantic supernova remnant (SNR) at the center of the famous constellation Cassiopeia. The international team of amateur astronomers is under the scientific direction of Professor Robert Fesen (USA). The fact that amateurs have made such a discovery is a testament to the importance of their role in astronomy today.

Taken with a Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro and Paramount MyT GEM mounts, QHYCCD QHY600PH-M, ZWO ASI2600MM Pro and ZWO ASI6200MM Pro cameras, 530mm and 382mm f/3.6 and f/5, 258 hours 32 minutes total exposure with 60-second, 180-second, 300-second and 600-second subframes.

Locations: Oukaïmeden, Atlas Mountains, Morocco, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, USA, Avril, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Grand Est, France, Dommartin-lès-Remiremont, Vosges, Grand Est, France, Puzieux, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Grand Est, France and Turckheim, Haut-Rhin, Grand Est, France, July 31, August 1-4, August 5-15, September 20, October 6, 7, 9 and 15, November 2 to 5, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 16, 2023.

Winner of the Sir Patrick Moore Award for Best Newcomer

The SH2-308 nebula (the Dolphin Head) is located at a low angle and can only be imaged for five hours a day. This image comprises a total of ten days of shooting and post-processing with PixInsight. The main body of the nebula and the background stellar wind are prominent.

Taken with a Takahashi TOA-130NS telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ8 mount, ZWO ASI6200MM-Cool camera, 1000 mm f/7.7, gain 100, 144 H-alpha exposures of 600 seconds, 140 OIII exposures of 600 seconds.

Location: Ruo'ergai County, Aba County, Sichuan Province, China, January 6-16, 2024.

Winner of the young category

This image shows a deep integration in the California Nebula, NGC 1499, an emission nebula in the constellation Perseus. It lies about 1,000 light-years from Earth and is visible thanks to the ionization of gases by the blue giant star ξ Persei (Menkib).

Taken with a ZWO ASI533MC Pro camera, Samyang 135mm F2.0 lens, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer mount, 135mm f/2.8, 263 × 300 seconds exposures, 228 × 180 seconds exposures (total exposure 33 hours 19 minutes).

Location: Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, October 7, 8, 11, 14, November 5, 7, 8, 2023.

Winner of the Annie Maunder Award for Innovation in Imaging

This seemingly alien world is actually our imperiled home planet, Earth, as a distant civilization would study it. This image was created by blending the 16 bands monitored by the GOES-18 weather satellite to encode land masses, oceans, and atmospheric features as different colors.

Original data from GOES-18 ABI (bands 1 to 16 (0.47 to 13.3 microns)) from February 18, 2024 and Suomi-NPP VIIRS (0.5 to 0.9 microns) from 2012 to 2020.