Brightest stars: The winners of the 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year
An image depicting a transient star trail, the Space X Falcon 9 passing by Earth’s Moon, and a glowing aurora were among the category winners of this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
Now in its 13th year, Astronomy Photographer of the Year, which is organised annually by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, has grown into a respected international competition for astrophotography.
Photographer Shuchang Dong has been announced as this year’s Overall Winner for his simple yet striking photograph of a solar eclipse titled The Golden Ring.
As winner, Dong walks away with a £10,000 prize as well as the opportunity for his work to be showcased at the exhibition of winning images at the National Maritime Museum, UK.
Commenting on the winning photograph, judge László Francsics said: “Perfection and simplicity, that can lead to a winner image. The square crop has a tension with the mystic ring, and the misty bluish sky is the complementary of the yellow ring. A true masterpiece”.
Australian photographers' names in lights
Australian photographers Ed Hurst and Steven Mohr have been recognised as shortlisted entrants in the People & Space and the Stars & Nebulae categories, respectively. You can see their impressive stills below.
Category winners
Stars and Nebulae - Terry Hancock
Aurorae - Dmitrii Rybalka
Skyscapes - Jeffrey Lovelace
People and Space - Deepal Ratnayaka
Our Moon - Nicolas Lefaudeux
Our Sun - Shuchang Dong
Planets, Comets and Asteroids - Frank Kuszaj
Galaxies - Zhong Wu
Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year - Zhipu Wang 至璞 王
If you're keen to see more of the top photographs, you can view the entire gallery of shortlisted images on the competition’s website here.