Check out these incredible night snaps

The winners of the annual South Downs astrophotography competition have been announced, and the night-sky snaps are absolutely breathtaking.

Photographers submitted photos of the national park at night to be judged by a panel of experts.

The winner in the 'Life at Night' category was Giles Embleton-Smith, from Eastbourne, with 'Chanctonbury Coven'.

It's an eerie picture of some trees in the national park, at a site that used to be a Roman temple.

Giles also scooped the top prize in the 'Magnificent Moon' category, with this shot of a Cold Moon at Petworth Park.

He said: "I love exploring and finding new locations under the dark skies of the South Downs National Park.

"Chanctonbury Ring and Petworth Park are both beautiful areas offering different perspectives and composition for nightscape photography."

The competition was held ahead of the Dark Skies Festival taking place in the national park, which is one of 22 International Dark Sky Reserves in the world.

These are places where there isn't much light pollution from major cities, and you can see clearly the stars above, making them a perfect location for stargazing.

You can see how clear the night sky is there in this shot by Jamie Fielding, the winner of the Dark Skyscapes category.

Jamie said: "This was a shot I had been planning for over a year, waiting for the perfect time when the Milky Way rises over the south coast and aligns with the Cuckmere Valley.

"I was delighted with the results and feel lucky that we have this quality of dark sky in the National Park to capture shots like this, whilst only a matter of miles away from some major towns and cities."

The photographs captured lots of elements of the park at night, like this photo of a toad crossing the road at Exceat, East Sussex, taken by Peter Brooks.

This stunning photo pf the Northern Lights was taken by Lorcan Taylor-Hood and won the 'Man vs Galaxy' category.