The best astronomical photos of the year allow you to see celestial objects that are often impossible
Photos taken by the finalists of the 13thThe Royal Observatory Greenwich's annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is a wonderful reminder of the size and age of the Universe. For example, an image created by photographer James Rushforth shows Comet NEOWISE passing over Stonehenge. But this structure did not even exist when the comet last flew over the Earth - 6800 years ago.
Competition held in collaboration with the magazineBBC Sky at Night, has collected over 4,500 works from 75 different countries. Winners in 12 nominations will be announced on September 16, 2021, and photographs of the winners will be on display at the National Maritime Museum in London. Here are photos of the best members.
Day transit
The photo shows how Internationalthe space station passes through the waning moon Moon during the day. Photographer Andrew McCarthy of Elk Grove, California used two cameras and two telescopes to take pictures, which he then combined into a single scene.
Image courtesy of Andrew McCarthy
For monochrome images, McCarthy usedCelestron EdgeHD800 telescope at f / 10, Hobym Traveler mount, ZWO ASI174MM camera, 1000 x 1 millisecond exposure. And for the color one - the Orion XT10 telescope at f / 10, Hobym Traveler mount, Sony A7II camera, ISO 200, 1 millisecond exposure.
Shining in Murmansk
In this photo taken in January 2020,the northern lights overshadow the lights of Murmansk, Russia. Photographer Vitaly Novikov had to wait for a strong solar flare so that the northern lights could be seen despite the city lights.
Image courtesy of Vitaly Novikov
Bicolor Veil Nebula
This image is stitched together from photographsof the Veil Nebula, taken in June, July and August 2020. The nebula is the remnant of a giant supernova explosion. The photo was taken in Pest County, Hungary.
(Image courtesy of Peter Felthoti)
The Veil Nebula, also the Loop Nebula orThe Fishnet Nebula is a diffuse nebula in the constellation Cygnus, a huge and relatively faint supernova remnant. The star exploded approximately 5,000 to 8,000 years ago, and during that time the nebula covered an area of 3 degrees in the sky. Its radius is 50 light years, the nebula itself is located 1470 light years from Earth.
The photographer used a SkyWatcher 200/800 telescopeNewton Astrograph f / 4.6, Astronomik Ha and OIII filters, SkyWatcher NEQ6 Pro mount, Moravian G3-16200 Mark II camera, Ha-OIII composite, 12 hours total exposure.
Chateau—de—Chambord
A castle in the center of Val-de-Loire, France, has long beengoal and big challenge for photographer Benjamin Barakat from the UK. The composite image is taken from photographs taken during one minute pauses in the castle lighting every 15 minutes.
(Image courtesy of Benjamin Barakat)
Comet NEOWISE over Stonehenge
Stonehenge did not exist 6,800 years ago whenComet NEOWISE last passed Earth. Photo taken by James Rashforth from the UK. An orange glow emanates from the villages of Darrington and Larkhill, and the lights of a passing truck illuminate the rocks.
(Image courtesy of James Rushforth)
C / 2020 F3 (NEOWISE) - retrograde comet with almostparabolic orbit, discovered on March 27, 2020 by the NEOWISE Space Infrared Telescope. The comet passed its perihelion on July 3, 2020. As of July 5, 2020, its apparent magnitude was about + 1.5ᵐ.
Dolphin Head Nebula
The Dolphin's Head Nebula is in the centerconstellation Canis Major. Essentially, this is a huge cosmic bubble of ionized oxygen created by winds from the Wolf-Rayet star. Yovin Yahatugoda from Sri Lanka took this image using the Telescope Live remote telescope in Chile. It took 90 minutes of exposure over three nights to take the photo.
(Image courtesy of Yovin Yahatugoda)
Yakhatugoda used an ASA 500N telescope at f / 3.8, Astrodon filters, ASA DDM85 Premium mount, FLI PL16803 camera, Ha-OIII composite, total exposure 1.5 hours.
Harmony
This view of the Milky Way shows contrastbetween the stars of the galaxy and the lavender fields of Valensole, France. Photographer Stefan Liebermann captured the foreground and night sky separately, because otherwise the lavender blowing in the wind would look like a blur in the long exposures needed to capture the Milky Way.
(Image courtesy of Stefan Lieberman)
Liebermann took the picture with a Sony ILCE-7M3 camera,Fornax Mounts LighTrack II, 16mm f / 2.8 lens. For the foreground: ISO 2500, exposure 15 x 0.8 seconds; and for the sky: ISO 2000, 5 x 120 second exposures.
Icelandic vortex
In this picture taken in January 2020,Northern Lights illuminate the sky near Vik, Iceland. Photographer Larryn Ray noted that capturing the northern lights over Iceland's mighty natural environment in winter was an amazing experience.
Photographer Larrin Rae
Ray used a Canon EOS 5D Mark 4 camera, 16mm f / 2.8 lens, ISO 6400, shutter speed 20 x 6 seconds.
Martian sunset
In this composite image, taken withImages from the Curiosity rover in 2015, the Sun is setting on Mars. The sun looks slightly smaller than it does on Earth, given the greater distance from Mars to the nearest star. Photo courtesy of John White.
(Image credit: John White)
NGC 2024 - Flame Nebula
The Flame Nebula is located in the constellation Orion, between 900 and 1500 light-years from Earth. Stephen More captured this composite image from Australia between November and December 2020.
Stephen More
Mor used a 12.5-inch CDK flat-wave telescope with f / 8 aperture, Astrodon and Baader filters, AP900GTO mount, SBIG STXL-1100 + AOX camera, L-RGB-Ha composite, total exposure 23 hours.
NGC 3981
NGC 3981 is a galaxy in the constellation Chalice.This object is one of those listed in the original edition of the New Shared Catalog. NGC 3981 is part of the NGC 4038 group of galaxies. In addition to NGC 3981, the group also includes 25 more galaxies.
The galaxy is at a distance65 million light years from Earth. Here its interaction with the neighboring galaxy is obvious—the outer arms become entangled and are carried away by the gravity acting between the two objects.
(Image courtesy of Bernard Miller)
Photographer Bernard Miller used the ASA telescopeRC-1000AZ with f/6.8 aperture, Astrodon filters, ASA Alt-Azimuth direct drive mount, FLI PL16803 camera, L-RGB composite, total exposure 34 hours.
NGC 6188 SHOrgb by Cielaustral Team
NGC 6188 is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation Ara. This object is one of those listed in the original edition of the New Shared Catalog.
The galaxy is about 4,000 lightyears from Earth. The Cielaustral team assembled a mosaic of images taken over 250 hours to create this image of the gaseous region of space. The team of photographers included Jean-Claude Canonne, Didier Capellan, Georges Chassein, Philippe Bernhard, Laurent Bourgogne and Nicolas Outters.
(Image courtesy of the Cielaustral team © Jean-Claude Canonne, Didier Capellan, Georges Chasseny, Philippe Bernhard, Laurent Bourgogne and Nicolas Outters)
The image was taken with a homemade 20-inch CDK telescope with f / 6.8 aperture, Paramount ME2 mount, Moravian G4 16803 camera, RGB-Ha-SII-OIII composite, total exposure of 253 hours.
Starry nursery
(Image courtesy of Stephen More)
The photograph shows a section of darka molecular cloud the size of a full moon, discovered in the constellation Crown of Australia, 554 light years from Earth. New stars are born in this cloud. On the left is NGC 6723, a globular cluster located 28,400 light-years from the planet.
Photographer Stephen Mohr used plane waveCDK 12.5-inch telescope with f/8 aperture, Astrodon and Baader filters, AP900GTO mount, SBIG STXL-11000 + AOX camera, L-RGB-Ha composite, total exposure 82.58 hours.
Sisters of the Pleiades
Fourteen-year-old Jashanpreet Singh Dhingra took this photo of the Pleiades star cluster over Punjab, India, in December 2020.
(Image credit: Jashanpreet Singh Dingra)
Equipment: Takahashi FSQ-85ED telescope at 450mm f/5.3, Astrodon filters, Avalon M-Uno mount, QSI 660WSG-8 camera, L-RGB-Ha composite, total exposure 3 hours 3 minutes.
Ionic tail of comet 2020F8 SWAN
C / 2020 F8 (SWAN) - comet, discovered by the Australianastronomy amateur Michael Mattiazzo in images captured on March 25, 2020 by the SWAN camera at the SOHO orbiting space observatory. The comet was close to naked eye visibility and became one of the brightest in the spring of 2020.
(Image courtesy of Gerald Riemann)
The comet may have completely disintegrated after it appeared in the southern sky in May 2020.
Equipment: 12-inch ASA Astrograph telescope with f / 3.6 aperture, ASA DDM 85 mount, FLI ML16200 camera, LRGB composite, total exposure - 21 minutes.
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