The Royal Observatory Greenwich is pleased to announce the shortlist for this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.The Awards will be announced on September 18, 2013, while an exhibition of the winning images will run from September 19 to February 23, 2014.Receiving the Galatic Beam. The Milky Way appears to line up with the giant 64-m dish of the radio telescope at Parkes Observatory in Australia. As can be seen from the artificial lights around the telescope, light pollution is not a problem for radio astronomers. Radio and microwave interference is a big issue however, as it masks the faint natural emissions from distant objects in space. For this reason many radio observatories ban mobile phone use on their premises.
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A Flawless Point. The Milky Way arches over Yosemite Valley in California’s famous national park. A lens-shaped (lenticular) cloud hovers over the distinct granite dome of Liberty Cap, which rises to an elevation of over 2000m, near the centre of the photograph.
Comet Panstarrs
Archway to Heaven. The natural rock archway of Durdle Door frames the distant band of the Milky Way.
Northern Lights XXIII. A vast sweep of shimmering auroral light appears to mirror the shape of the frozen shoreline.
Eta Carinae and her Keyhole.
Leaning In. Familiar stars and constellations form a line rising up behind this windswept tree in Dartmoor National Park in the southwest of England. Just above the horizon is Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, followed by the unmistakeable outline of Orion the Hunter. Above this lies the triangular face of Taurus the Bull with the orange star Aldebaran, the disc of the Moon and the bright, compact cluster of the Pleiades.
Herbig-Haro Heaven in the Pelican Nebula. The birth of new stars is a complex process which astronomers are still trying to understand in detail. One fascinating aspect of stellar formation is the production of jets of material which blast out from the poles of some new-born stars. Here, these jets, or ‘Herbig-Haro objects’, can be seen emerging from the thick dust and gas clouds of the Pelican Nebula, a stellar nursery in the constellation of Cygnus.
Photographers on the rim of My Vatn Craters. Auroral displays have become more common, as the Sun nears the peak of its 11-year cycle of activity in 2013.
The Night Photographer. A bright meteor streaks across the sky as it burns up high in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Hunter’s Moon over the Alps. As the full Moon sinks in the west, the Sun rises in the east, lighting up the snow-capped Alpine horizon. Although both Moon and mountain are illuminated by sunlight in this image their different colours reveal the scattering effects of the Earth’s atmosphere on the white light of the Sun. The rays of the rising Sun pass through the full thickness of the air causing the blue, green and yellow light to be scattered in all directions and leaving only the red light to reach the distant mountains. The Moon is slightly higher in the sky, so its reflected sunlight is scattered less severely, and retains a warm yellow glow.
Orion Nebula (M242NS).
