These amazing images are the shortlist for the 2013 Astronomy Photographer of the Year
posted Friday, August 9, 2013 at 12:57 PM EST
For half a decade, the Royal Observatory Greenwich and Sky at Night Magazine have been running the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, showing off the best the field has to offer from both amateurs and pros. From over 1200 images, a short handful have been chosen as the short list, and each is astonishing.
The images were all submitted via a special Flickr group, and were judged by a panel of experts. All the images deemed excellent enough to make the shortlist will be compiled in a book after the winners are announced on September 19th, with prizes ranging from £125 to £1500. The categories up for consideration are:
Overall winner – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013
Earth and Space: This is for photos of our Sun and its family of planets, moons, asteroids and comets.
Our Solar System: This is for photos of our Sun and its family of planets, moons, asteroids and comets.
Deep Space: This is for photos of anything beyond our Solar System, including stars, nebulae and galaxies.
Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year: This is the competition category for under-16s.
People and Space: This is for photos that include people in a creative and original way.
The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer: This is for photos taken by people who have taken up the hobby in the last year and have not entered an image into the competition before. The judges will give special consideration to those using simple and inexpensive start-out kit so please update your photo’s Flickr description to say what you've used.
Robotic Scope: A robotic telescope is considered to be one that is operated remotely, via the Internet, and publicly available to all. This special prize will only be awarded for images captured in this way and processed by the entrant.
For a glimpse at what it takes to win the competition, have a look at last year's victors.
We've uploaded a few of the images here, but for the rest, and more information about the shortlisted photographs, check out the write-ups at the Huffington Post UK and the Guardian.
(via My Modern Met)
