Are You the Astronomy Photographer of the Year?

By Nancy Atkinson - March 20, 2009 07:23 PM UTC | Site News

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Calling all astro-photo geeks! (as well as those of us that just like to look). The

Royal Observatory

in Greenwich, England is offering a brand new, free competition and exhibition for everyone who loves the night sky. It's open to anyone, from anywhere, including a special category for astro-photo buffs under the age of 16. There are some great prizes up for grabs and winning entries will be displayed in a special exhibition at the Royal Observatory. This competition is an International Year of Astronomy event, and from all the photos submitted, a a giant, zoomable photo-collage of the Universe will be created. Even if you're not a photographer, anyone interested in astronomy can go to the gallery on

Flickr

and soak in the eye candy. The competition has been open for awhile (and ends on July 19, 2009) and there are some awesome images taken by people from all around the world – some are absolutely breathtaking, like the image above taken by

Dave Thompson,

or the stunning image below taken by

Robert Jackson

.

Interested?

[caption id="attachment_27623" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Moonlight and Streetlights. Credit: Robert Jackson"]

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Here are the links to the Royal Observatory's contest website, and the

Flickr Astrophoto site.

There are three main competition categories. Judges will select one winner, one runner up and three highly commended entries from each, before deciding an overall winner to be crowned Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2009. There is also a special competition category for under 16s: Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year.

The categories and prizes are:

Overall winner – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2009

Prize: £1000

Earth and Space

This is for photos that include landscape, people and other 'Earthly' things. Your picture should also include an astronomical subject – for example the stars, the Moon, or near-Earth phenomena such as aurora.

Winner: £250 Runner up: £100 Highly commended entries: £50

Our Solar System

This is for photos of our Sun and its family of planets, moons, asteroids and comets.

Winner: £250 Runner up: £100 Highly commended entries: £50

Deep Space

This is for photos of anything beyond our Solar System, including stars, nebulae and galaxies.

Winner: £250 Runner up: £100 Highly commended entries: £50

Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year

This is the competition category for under 16s.

Winner: £250 Runner up: £100 Highly commended entries: £50

Enter, or just enjoy the gorgeous images from people from all over the world!

Thanks to

Dave Thompson

and

Robert Jackson

for sharing their photos with us here on Universe Today. Check out more of their photostreams on Flickr by clicking on their names.

Source:

Greenwich Observatory

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com