The winners of the 2017 edition of the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year awarding have been crown . The title and cash prizes have been awarded in 11 categories , include " Skyscapes " , " mass and Space " , and " Stars and Nebulae " .
The overall winner of the competition is Russian photographer Artem Mironov , who won in the Stars and Nebulae class , with a breathtaking image of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex , a nebula 400 light - years away . The motion-picture show was snapped over three nights from a farm in Namibia .
“ There ’s an astonishing richness of people of color and structure in this gorgeous image , " Dr Marek Kukula , Royal Observatory public astronomer and judge in the competition , stated . " It ’s a popular part of the sky for astrophotographers but this image shew it to us in a clean luminance and there ’s a signified of enigma in the moil cloud of accelerator pedal and dust which remind us that there ’s still so much to discover out there . A dazzling corner of our galaxy capture dead . "
The competitor this year received over 3,800 entries from 90 countries . judge had to work through an extensive andspectacular shortlistto select a winner , a smuggler - up , and highly commended picture . Like every year , the breadth of quality of the images is absolutely over-the-top .
“ Judging the entrance has been a real pleasure but also tough than ever , such was the all - pear-shaped quality of the field . I was particularly impressed that there were so many raw and flat coat - intermit response to the night sky captured by the neophyte this year , ” Chris Bramley , challenger judge and editor in chief for BBC Sky at Night Magazine , added .
Among the more evocative pictures , there ’s a sensational image of a teal aurora learn in Iceland by Danish lensman Mikkel Beiter , the winner in the Aurorae class .
Another Russian photographer , Yuri Zvezdny , won the People and Space category , with hisWanderer in Patagonia , in which the desolated Patagonia landscape painting is illuminated by the Milky Way .
In the Skyscape family , the winner was Haitong Yu from China . InPassageto the Milky Way , he snapped a magnificent pic of our galaxy as seen from between the building of LAMOST at the National Astronomical Observatory of China .
Ukranian Oleg Bryzgalov lead a beautiful image of the M63 , also known as the Sunflower Galaxy , a cold spiral extragalactic nebula located 27 million tripping - years from Earth .
Alexandra Hart , from the United Kingdom , took this sinful picture of Mercury passing across the solar disk .
The remaining family not boast in our clause are " Our Moon " , " Planets , Comets , and Asteroids " , " Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year " , " The Sir Patrick Moore prize for Best Newcomer " , and the " Special Prize : Robotic Scope " . All the persona are demonstrate inside the Royal Observatory Greenwich and can be checked online at theRoyal observation tower site .
