Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2023 shortlist images released

The world’s biggest astrophotography competition returns for its 15th year with a spectacular selection of shortlisted images.

By Iain Todd

Published: Monday, 26 June 2023 at 12:00 am

The shortlisted images in the 2023 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition have been released by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

The astrophotography competition, now in its 15th year, is the biggest in the world, and in 2023 received over 4,000 entries from 64 countries around the globe.

This year’s shortlisted images include star trails over the First World War trench memorial in Vimy, northern France, the band of our Milky Way galaxy stretching across the sky over an abandoned diamond processing planet in Namibia, and the gas giant Jupiter accompanied by two of its Galilean moons Io and Europa.

"Celestial
Celestial Equator Above First World War Trench Memorial, by Louis Leroux-Gere, Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts de France, France
Category: Skyscapes
Equipment: Canon EOS 6D (Astro modified), Samyang XP 14 mm f/2.4 lens, 14 mm f/3.2, ISO 1000, 577 x 30-second exposures

Recent aurora activity is also celebrated in a series of images of the Northern Lights, including over the Great Pollet Sea Arch in County Donegal, Ireland.

Scroll down to see all of this year’s shortlisted images.

The winning images of the 2023 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition will be announced on 14 September 2023, with an exhibition featuring the winning, shortlisted and highly commended entries due to open at the National Maritime Museum in London on 16 September.

If you’d like to enter next year, get tips and guides on photographing the night sky on our astrophotography webpage, and check the Astronomy Photographer of the Year website for up-to-date info.

You can keep up to date with this year’s competition via the hashtag #APY15 on social media, or by following @RMGreenwich on Twitter, @royalmuseumsgreenwich on Instagram and /royalmuseumsgreenwich on Facebook.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15: Shortlisted images

"Arctic
Arctic Gates, by Daniel Viñé Garcia, Arctic Henge, Raufarhöfn, Iceland. Category: Aurorae Equipment: Sony Alpha 7RIII camera; Sky: 12 mm f/2.8, ISO 2000, 2.5-second exposure; Foreground: f/16, ISO 400, 3 x 4-second exposures
"Aurora
Aurora Over the Great Pollet Sea Arch, by Brendan Alexander, Great Pollet Sea Arch, Fanad Peninsula, County Donegal, Ireland Category: Aurorae Equipment: Canon EOS 6D camera, fixed tripod, Sigma 20 mm f/1.8 lens, 20 mm f/2.8, ISO 6400, 13-second, total exposure (two frames); Sky: 7.5-second exposure; Foreground: 5.5-second exposure
"Curtain
Curtain of Light, by Andreas Ettl, Hamnøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway Category: Aurorae Equipment: Nikon Z7 camera, 17 mm f/2.8, ISO 1600, 10-second exposure
"Emerald
Emerald Roots, by Lorenzo Ranieri Tenti, Vestrahorn, Stokksnes, Iceland. Category: Aurorae Equipment: Sony ILCE-7S camera, 14 mm f/2.8, ISO 6400, 25-second exposure; Foreground: 23 seconds, Aurora: 8 seconds
"Nebulae
Nebulae of the Small Magellanic Cloud, by Jonathan Lodge, Heaven’s Mirror Observatory, Yass Valley, New South Wales, Australia. Category: Galaxies Equipment: Takahashi FSQ-106ED telescope (with 0.73 x focal reducer), Astrodon SHOLRGB 2GEN filter, Paramount MX+ mount, FLI ProLine 16803 camera, 382 mm f/3.6, 29 hours total integration
"NGC
NGC 1097 and Tidal Tails, by Mark Hanson; Mike Selby, El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Chile Category: Galaxies Equipment: Planewave CDK 1000 and CDK 700 telescopes, Chroma filters, FLI 16803 and QHY461 cameras, 6,000 mm f/6 and 4550 mm f/6.5, multiple 900-second Luminance exposures (12 hours total exposure), 9-hour H-alpha exposure and 5-hour RGB exposures per filter
"NGC
NGC 3521: Marquise in the Sky, by Mark Hanson; Mike Selby, El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Chile Category: Galaxies Equipment: Planewave CDK 1000 and CDK 700 telescopes, Chroma filters, FLI 16803 camera, 6,000 mm f/6 and 4,550 mm f/6.5, multiple 900-second Luminance exposures (19 hours total exposure), 5-hour exposure per RGB filter
"Ball
Ball of Rock, by Rich Addis, Wallasey, Wirral, Merseyside, UK Category: Our Moon Equipment: Celestron 6SE SCT telescope, Advanced GT mount, ZWO ASI120MC camera, 1500mm 6”, Gain 50, Full Moon: multiple 1-millisecond exposures; Waxing Gibbous: multiple 1.6-millisecond exposures
"Crescent
Crescent Moon in a Magical Sunset, by Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, Rafaela, Santa Fe, Argentina Category: Our Moon Equipment: Canon EOS 90D camera, 600 mm f/6.3, ISO 800, three exposures between 1/400 and 1/100-seconds
"Mare
Mare Crisium: From Light to Dark, by Andrea Vanoni, Porto Mantovano, Mantua, Lombardy, Italy. Category: Our Moon Equipment: Newton Ares 405mm F4.5 telescope, Baader R-filter, Sky-Watcher EQ8 mount, ZWO ASI178MM camera, 6000 mm f/20, 1/400 exposure
"Grazing
Grazing Mammoths, by Rafael Schmall, Zselic Park of Stars, Zselickisfalud, Hungary Category: Our Sun Equipment: Lunt LS 100 H-alpha telescope, Fornax 150/200 mount, ZWO ASI294 camera, 700 mm f/7, Gain 100, ISO 100, 2.5-millissecond exposure
"Solar
Solar Flare X1 from AR2994 in ‘Motion’, by Miguel Claro, Dark Sky Alqueva region, Évora district, Portugal Category: Our Sun Equipment: Sky-Watcher Esprit ED120 telescope, Daystar Quark Chromosphere filter, Sky-Watcher EQ6 mount, Player One Apollo M-Max Solar camera, 840 mm, 900 frames at 9.1 ms per frame (recorded as video at 109 FPS)
"The
The Great Solar Flare, by Mehmet Ergün, Traisen, Germany. Category: Our Sun Equipment: LUNT LS60 B1200 Double Stack telescope, Rainbow RST-135 mount, Player One Astronomy Neptune-M 178M camera, 500 mm f/8.3, Gain 13, 1.5 second exposure
"China
China Space Station Transits Active Sun, by Letian Wang, Beijing, China. Category: People & Space Equipment: Lunt 152T telescope, Rainbow RST-135 mount, TeleVue 2X Barlow lens, ZWO ASI432MM camera, 900 mm f/6, 0.8-millisecond and 1.3-millisecond exposures
"Dolbadarn
Dolbadarn Castle, Home of Welsh Princes, by Robert Price, Llanberis, Gwynedd, Wales, United Kingdom. Category: People & Space Equipment: Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini mount, 24 mm f/2.8, ISO 800; Sky: 25 x 120-second exposures; Foreground: 10 x 45-second exposures
"Pandora’s
Pandora’s Box, by Derek Horlock, Alyko Beach Naxos, Greece Category: People & Space Equipment: Nikon Z 6II camera; Sky: 35 mm f/2.8, ISO 1000, 120-seconds x 6 panned images; Foreground: 24 mm f/6.3, ISO 1000, 60-second exposure
"Sperrgebiet,
Sperrgebiet, by Vikas Chander, Bogenfels, Namib Desert, Namibia, Category: People & Space Equipment: Nikon D850 camera, 21 mm f/2.8, ISO 800, 30-second exposure
"C/2021
C/2021 A1 (Leonard) in Sky of Israel, by Alex Savenok, Negev desert, Israel Category: Planets, Comets & Asteroids Equipment: Nikon Z7 II camera, 70–300 mm lens, ISO 4000; Sky: 250 mm f/5.6, 22 x 30-second exposures (lights), 30 x darks, 50 x flats (tracked and stacked); Foreground: 240 mm f/5.6
"Colourful
Colourful Saturn, by Damian Peach, Marley Vale, Barbados, United Kingdom Category: Planets, Comets & Asteroids Equipment: Celestron C14 EdgeHD telescope, Losmandy G11 mount, Player One Saturn-M SQR camera, 8,000 mm f/22, 50,000 single frames combined through RGB filters x 0.02-second exposure
"Dance
Dance of the Moons, by Damian Peach, Marley Vale, Barbados, United Kingdom Category: Planets, Comets & Asteroids Equipment: Celestron C14 EdgeHD telescope, Losmandy G11 mount, Player One Saturn-M SQR camera, 8,000 mm f/22, 50,000 single frames combined through RGB filters x 0.02-second exposure
"Celestial
Celestial Equator Above First World War Trench Memorial, by Louis Leroux-Gere, Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts de France, France Category: Skyscapes Equipment: Canon EOS 6D (Astro modified), Samyang XP 14 mm f/2.4 lens, 14 mm f/3.2, ISO 1000, 577 x 30-second exposures
"Comet
Comet 2022 E3 Above Snowy Mount Etna, by Dario Giannobile, Mount Etna, Sicily, Italy Category: Skyscapes Equipment: Canon EOS 6D camera, Sigma art 150–600 mm lens, Lightach II Fornax, 293 mm f/7.1; Sky: ISO 3200, 27 x 45-second exposures; Landscape: ISO 320, 2 x 180-second exposures
"Dune,
Dune, by Burak Esenbey, White Desert National Park, Egypt Category: Skyscapes Equipment: Sony ILCE-7S (Astro modified) camera, MoveShootMove mount, 18 mm f/2.8, ISO 1000, 4 x 181-second exposures
"On
On Top of the Dream, by Jeff Graphy, Pain de Sucre, Queyras, France Category: Skyscapes Equipment: Canon EOS 6D camera, 35 mm f/2.8, ISO 6400; Sky: 8-second exposure; Foreground: 20-second exposure
"Solargraph
Solargraph 209 days, by Ksawery Wróbel, Bloomingdale, Illinois, USA Category: Skyscapes Equipment: Homemade ‘Eye of Sparrow’ pinhole camera, 23.5 mm f/130, 209 days total exposure
"St
St Agnes, by Derek Horlock, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom Category: Skyscapes Equipment: Nikon Z6 II camera; Sky: 35 mm (6 images panned) f/2.8, ISO 800, 6 x 180-second exposures; Foreground: 24 mm f/8, ISO 800, 100-second exposure
"Jellyfish
Jellyfish Nebula, by Peter Larkin, Coppet, Vaud, Switzerland Category: Stars & Nebulae Equipment: Celestron RASA 8 telescope, Baader highspeed H-alpha, S and O filters, Celestron CGX mount, ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro camera, 400 mm f/2, ISO 100, multiple 60-second exposures, approx. 11 hours total exposure time
"Pleione’s
Pleione’s Daughters, by Andre Vilhena, Santa Susana, Portugal Category: Stars & Nebulae Equipment: TS-Optics Photoline APO 800/115 telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount, QHY 268M camera, 634 mm focal length 115 mm aperture, 149 x 180-second Luminance exposures, 98 x 180-second RGB exposures
"RCW
RCW 58: Wolf Rayet Bubble, by Mark Hanson; Mike Selby, El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Chile Category: Stars & Nebulae Equipment: PlaneWave CDK 1000 and CDK 700 telescopes, Chroma filters, FLI 16803 and QHY461 cameras, 6,000 mm f/6 and and 4,550 mm f/6.5, multiple 60-second RGB exposures, 30 minutes total exposure per channel, multiple 600-second H-alpha exposures, 19 hours 40 minutes total exposure, multiple 900-second OIII exposures, 13 hours total exposure
"The
The Majestic Tarantula Nebula, by Steeve Body, Bentleigh, Victoria, Australia Category: Stars & Nebulae Equipment: Askar 107 PHQ telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro mount, ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera, 749 mm f/7, Gain 139 for H-alpha, OIII and SII and Gain 0 for RGB, 45 x 600-second H-alpha exposures, 45 x 600-second OIII exposures, 24 x 600-second SII exposures, 40 x 45-second exposures for each RGB filter, 24 hours total exposure time
"Eastern
Eastern Veil: NGC6992/6995, by Jia You, Jiuliancheng town, Hebei Province, China Category: The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer Equipment: Sky Rover 102APO telescope, Antlia 3nm filter, Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro mount, ZWO-ASI2600MM-Cool camera, Gain 100, 714 mm f/7, 30 x 900-second (H-alpha x 20, OIII x 10) exposures
"Radio
Radio Polaris, by João Yordanov Serralheiro, Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge, United Kingdom Category: Stars & Nebulae Equipment: Sony ILCE-7M2 camera, 28 mm f/2, ISO 200, 124 x 30-second exposures
"The
The Milky Way, by Kush Chandaria, Okavango Delta, Botswana Category: Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year Equipment: Sigma Art 40 mm telescope, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Pro mount, CanonEOS Ra camera, 40 mm f/1.4, ISO 1600, 10 x 10-second exposures
"Cassinified
Cassinified Pluto, by Sergio Díaz Ruiz Category: Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation Monochrome image of Pluto generated using NASA data