Perhaps more than any other type of photography, astronomical photography is just insanely impressive - the degree of patience and control required to get good photos of the night sky, let alone distant stars and planets, is hard to overstate.
That’s one of the reasons why there are awards dedicated entirely to astronomy photographs.
TheAstronomy Photographer of the Yearcompetition is run by theRoyal Observatory Greenwich.
Each year the competition receives thousands of different entries from all over the world. Now this year’s winners have been revealed and as you can imagine they’re truly amazing. The winners will be exhibited in the National Maritime Museum for all to enjoy.
We’ve collected some of them for you to enjoy, along with some of the fantastic shortlisted images too.
Andromeda Galaxy, The Neighbour
The Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year award went to this photo by Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen.
TheYoung Astronomy Photographer of the Year awardwent to this photo of the Andromeda Galaxy by Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen.
“The Andromeda Galaxy, or Messier 31 (M31), is one of the closest and largest neighbours of the Milky Way. M31 is also the most distant object the human eye can see. When you look at it with the naked eye it’s like a fog, but through the telescope it shows its magnificence. Yang Hanwen provided the original picture of M31.”
The Eye of God
Weitang Liang’s image of the Helix Nebula was seleted as the winner for this year’s awards under the Stars & Negbulae category.
Weitang Liang’s image of the Helix Nebula was seleted as the winner for this year’s awards under theStars & Negbulae category.
“This ultra-deep exposure of the ‘Eye of God’, also known as the Helix Nebula or NGC 7293, reveals the glorious colours of the core and rarely seen surrounding details. The core appears in purple and cyan, creating an ethereal and dreamy feeling. The stunning orange, red and yellow outer region shows the power of the cosmos – all the matter is moving, colliding and tumbling.”
A Year in the Sun
Here’s an award-winning photo of our sun which took some effort to create as it was crafted over an entire year.
Here’s an award-winning photo ofour sunwhich took some effort to create as it was crafted over an entire year.
“Mukherjee imaged the Sun for 365 days between 08 June 2025 and 01 August 2025 (missing just 6 days during this period). After a year, he blended the images to create a single shot The sunspots create two bands on the solar disc, around 15–35 degrees north and south of the equator and gradually start drifting towards it (a phenomenon known as Spörer’s law).”
Shadow Profile of Plato’s East Rim
We’ve seen quite a few impressive images of the Moon over the last few years but this award winner is particularly stunning.
“Once a month the Sun rises over the giant lunar crater Plato and casts huge shadows from its east rim across its lava-filled floor. Occasionally this event coincides with a night of good seeing. The night of 13 June 2025 was one such rare night – with steady skies and the Moon high overhead, the dark, projected rim-profile was visible in exquisite detail.”
In the Embrace of a Green Lady
As images of Northern lights go, this one is surely a good one. It’s easy to see why it was chosen as the winner of the Aurorae category in the 2022 awards.
This photo was taken in Iceland and is brilliantly backdropped by the Eystrahorn mountain with the lights reflecting brilliantly on the frozen waters in front.
Majestic Sombrero Galaxy
Here’s the impressive winner from the space category which shows the equally impressive Sombrero galaxy captured in an interesting way.
“This image shows the faint star streams that were created when a smaller galaxy collided with, and its remnants then began to orbit, the Milky Way. Three versions of the photograph were made: a muted version for the background, a regular version for the disc and a super-stretched starless version for the stellar streams and halo. They were then combined into a single image.”
The International Space Station Transiting Tranquility Base
This impressive view won the People & Space category and shows the moment the International Space Station passed in front of the Moon.
This impressive view won the People & Space category. It’s remarkable because of its perfect timing:
“This image features the International Space Station (ISS) positioned directly over the Apollo 11 Moon-landing site on the Sea of Tranquility. The moment only lasted a handful of milliseconds and required precise positioning to capture the pass at the perfect time. "
Stabbing Into the Stars
This is the winner from this year’s Skyscapes category and shows a brilliant view over the mountains of Tibet.
This is the winner of this year’s Skyscapes category and shows a brilliant view over the mountains of Tibet.
“Namcha Barwa is the most beautiful snow-capped mountain in China. The name of the mountain in Tibetan means ‘spear thrusting into the sky’. This untouched land is also home to the purest of starry skies, the trails of which weave a wide net even on Full Moon days. Namcha Barwa, like a spear, pierces this net.”
Other amazing images from the awards
As you may see, the winners were fantastic, but we’ve also collected some of the best-shortlisted images and winners from previous years for you to enjoy.
Shortlisted for the Annie Maunder Prize for Digital Innovation, this image by Sergio Díaz Ruiz shows our sun in a way you’ve probably never seen.
“This image depicts the busy surface and coronal activity of the Sun at 22:08 Universal Time on 19 August 2025. A powerful Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), shown in deep red in the upper left corner, erupted on the far side. Intriguing formations of plumes (in blue), coronal holes (in dark teal) and filaments (brown) are also represented. To capture all this activity in one image, it was necessary to combine observations in multiple wavelengths in the extreme ultraviolet.”
