In photos: Comet Leonard, a “Blood Moon” and “Winged Aurora” star in the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year

Do you remember Comet Leonard, the “Christmas Comet”?

Astrophotographers took some incredible pictures of it back then, and a few months later one of them won an international award for the best space image of the year.

Gerald Rhemann, whose images of Comet Leonard were featured on social media in December 2021, captured his stunning images from the Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm in Khomas, Namibia. On Christmas Day, he imagined it suffering a dramatic tail “separation event” when part of its tail was ripped off and swallowed by the solar wind.

The overall winner of Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14, Rhemann’s photo of a rare event will be on display at the National Maritime Museum in London on Saturday 17 September 2022. “This award is one of the highlights of my astrophotography work,” said Rhemann. “All the effort that went into making this picture a success was worth it.”

The competition received over 3,000 entries from 67 countries. Here is a selection of some of the best images from this year’s competition, which consisted of 11 different categories:

Noah Kujawski’s photo of the November 2021 lunar eclipse shows the fantastic red color created by light permeating all of Earth’s sunrises and sunsets, casting a blood-red glow on the moon.

An unusual “winged aurora” crowning a mountain in Murmansk, Russia, captured by Alexander Stepanenko. “It’s not uncommon to see shapes during an aurora show, but this bird is one of the best we’ve seen,” said Steve Marsh, judge and arts editor of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. “There’s so much movement and dynamism in it.”

This composite image, taken with a Sony A7 III camera in Bulgaria in August 2021 by photographer Mihail Minkov, shows Buzludzha, a spaceship-like structure built in the 1970s. “An extraordinary image of an iconic Brutalist building on the northernmost edge of Bulgaria’s Balkan Mountains,” said Hannah Lyons, Associate Curator of Art at the Royal Museums Greenwich. “The spaceship-like structure, combined with the glowing skyscape and soaring figure, creates an eerie yet soothing symphony.”

The Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year award was won by two 14-year-old boys from China, Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen, for a picture of the Andromeda galaxy (above). “One of the main functions of astrophotography is to make more people fall in love with astronomy by showing the beauty of the universe,” said Zezhen.

Chinese photographer Weitang Liang’s “The Eye of God” is an image of the Helix Nebula that resembles an eye.

British photographer Martin Lewis’s ‘Shadow Profile of Plato’s East Rim’, one of the sharpest images of the giant crater Plato on the moon.

In the Embrace of a Green Lady by Slovakian photographer Filip Hrebenda captures the Northern Lights reflected on a freezing Icelandic lake.

A Year in the Sun by Indian photographer Soumyadeep Mukherjee is a clever compilation of images of the sun captured over the course of a year. It shows the zones where sunspots mainly form.

The International Space Station (ISS) Transiting Tranquility Base by American photographer Andrew McCarthy won in the People & Space category. It shows the ISS positioned directly over the Sea of ​​Tranquility where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and became the first moonwalkers in 1969.

“Fourteen years of competition have shown that astronomy is timeless and can withstand anything,” said Marsh. “This year has featured some near-‘space-telescope’-quality imagery, with contestants pouncing on celestial events as they happen, finding new ways to bring us well-documented objects, and demonstrating acute knowledge of their craft.”

The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, supported by Liberty Specialty Markets and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

I wish you clear skies and big eyes.