Astronomy photographer of the year 2020 shortlist
- Published
A competition to find the best pictures of space, has shared a shortlist of the top 35 images entered into the competition. Around 5,200 entries were sent in to The Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2020, from 70 countries around the world! This one was taken by Andy Casely who lives in Australia, using a special telescope and a camera.
The competition is split in to nine different categories, including one just for young people. This solar eclipse was captured above the European Southern Observatory's La Silla base in Chile. The solar eclipse occurred on the year that the observatory celebrated its 50th anniversary. Sounds like it was written in the stars!
After three failed attempts, the photographer finally got to shoot an image of London’s iconic Shard skyscraper with a full moon behind it.
This beautiful picture show the aurora borealis in its glory and was taken by Andreas Ettl from Germany. He had to wait two weeks for storms, clouds and snow to clear so he could take this amazing picture of the northern lights in the Lofoten Islands, in Norway.
This stunning picture of the Milky Way was captured by Jennifer Rogers in Cornwall. She took lots of pictures from the same position, and even managed to capture a meteor shooting across the sky.
This image captured by Ignacio Diaz Bobillo shows a ghostly image of a well known nebula. When a massive star explodes as a supernova it expels enormous amounts of materials, leaving behind stunning nebula, that are a combination of the floating gasses oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen.
This incredible picture shows the Sculpter Galaxy, one of the brightest, and dustiest spiral galaxies visible to us on Earth! It was sent in by Terry Robinson.
This image was captured by Qiqige (Nina) Zhao and entered in to the Young Photographer category. It was taken in the Namib Naukluft Park in Namibia, which is considered to be the perfect place for stargazers to see the night sky, as there is no light pollution from nearby cities. The photograph has been taken over several hours and shows the stars moving with the rotation of the Earth.
The Milky Way is shining bright in this photo, taken by Louise Jones in Cornwall. This is her second attempt ever at trying to photograph the Milky Way, and her photo was shortlisted for the Best Newcomer prize.
This image of a nebula taken by Alexios Theodorov uses special filters and techniques. The competition winners will be announced on 10 September, 2020, when they'll get their pictures displayed at the National Maritime Museum as well as taking home a cash prize.