Royal Observatory’s photographer of the year won with eclipse image Ryan Imperio has been named the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year for a photograph that captures the progression of Baily’s beads during the 2023 annular eclipse.
Mr Imperio’s entry was also among the winners selected for the Our Sun category of the competition.
The Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year award was won by Daniel Borsari for his image “NGC NGC 1499, A Dusty California”.
This image features the California Nebula – also known as NGC 1499 – an emission nebula in the constellation of Perseus.
The image was created by taking lots of pictures of the nebula and combining them into one.
Neal White, a prize judge and an artist, said Mr Borsari’s image showed “the future of astronomy photography being fearlessly, and openly, taken forward by a new generation”.
The galaxy can only be seen from the southern hemisphere, so the photographers travelled to Namibia to capture the image.
The image is a panorama composed of 19 pictures, capturing the pink beams of solar radiation that lit up the sky in February 2023.
Tom Rae captured this image of peaks of the Tasman Valley in New Zealand set against the night sky of the southern hemisphere during summer.
This impressive photograph is the result of 3,559 frames, 260 hours of exposure time and telescopes located on three continents.
The eclipse photo won the title of Royal Observatory’s photographer of the year.
For a shot that shows the progression of Baily’s beads during the annular eclipse in 2023, Ryan Imperio has been named the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year.
Baily’s beads, which are only momentarily visible at the start or finish of an eclipse, are created when sunlight filters through the Moon’s craters and valleys.
The winning image, according to judge and meteorologist Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn, is an “impressive dissection of the fleeting few seconds” when Baily’s beads can be seen.
“I was enthralled and amazed by this image,” she continued.
“I never expected to be selected,” Mr. Imperio said, adding that he was “both thrilled and honoured” to receive the £10,000 prize for winning the competition overall.
More than 3,500 entries were received for the 2024 competition from 58 different countries.
Mr. Imperio’s entry was also chosen as one of the winners for the competition’s Our Sun category.
With his photograph “NGC NGC 1499, A Dusty California,” Daniel Borsari took home the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year honor.
The California Nebula, sometimes referred to as NGC 1499, is an emission nebula located in the Perseus constellation.
Several images of the nebula were taken and combined into one to create the final image.
It is visible because the blue giant star Persei has ionized gases, making it approximately 1,000 light years away from Earth.
Judge and artist Neal White said that Mr. Borsari’s shot demonstrated “the future of astronomy photography being fearlessly, and openly, taken forward by a new generation.”.
View more of the selected photos here.
In the Galaxies category, Hungary’s Bence Tóth and Péter Feltót emerged victorious.
Their image displays the relativistic jet of the galaxy NGC 5128, which consists of radiation beams and particles traveling at nearly the speed of light.
Since the galaxy is only visible from the southern hemisphere, the photographers had to go to Namibia in order to get the picture.
Larryn Rae won the Aurorae category with a photo of the southern light aurora over Queenstown, New Zealand.
The picture, which is a panorama made up of 19 images, depicts the pink solar radiation beams that illuminated the sky in February 2023.
Hungarian artist Gábor Balázs’ “Shadow peaks of Sinus Iridum” won first place in the Our Moon category.
The enormous crater, Sinus Iridum, also referred to as the Bay of Rainbows, is visible in the picture at 260 kilometers across.
With a portion of its wall practically destroyed, the crater now resembles a bay.
Utilizing a monochrome camera with a filter, the photographer documented the region.
With his photo that showed the International Space Station (ISS) silhouetted against the Sun, Tom Williams of the UK took first place in the People and Space category.
Viewed from Earth, ISS transits of the Sun are extremely rare, crossing the field of view in a mere 0:02 seconds.
In the category of Planets, Comets, and Asteroids, Mr. Williams was also chosen as the winner.
His composite depicts Venus’s phases by revealing the planet’s upper atmosphere’s cloud structure through the use of infrared and ultraviolet filters.
Summertime in the southern hemisphere, Tom Rae took this photograph of the peaks of New Zealand’s Tasman Valley against the night sky.
It contains a band of the Milky Way and the hydrogen clouds of the Gum Nebula, the red blob close to the center.
Over 3,559 frames, 260 hours of exposure time, and three continents’ worth of telescopes were used to capture this amazing picture.
The group set out to investigate and take pictures of a massive supernova remnant (SNR) at the center of the well-known constellation Cassiopeia that had never been seen before.
Yann Sainty, Nicolas Martino, and Richard Galli in France, Marcel Drechsler in Germany, and Bray Falls in the USA created “SNR G107.5-5.2, The Nereides Nebula in Cassiopeia.”.
