The Starry Sky Over the World’s Highest National Highway by Yang Sutie, Shannan, Tibet. Equipment: SIGMA ILCE-1 camera, 20 mm f/2.8, ISO 800, 245-second total exposure.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022 shortlist revealed

See the shortlisted images from Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14.

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Iain Todd

Published: July 4, 2022 at 11:01 pm

The shortlisted images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14 competition have been revealed by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year is the world's biggest astrophotography competition and each year sees thousands of photographers from around the world submit their images of the night sky in the hope of scooping the top prize

Entrants can submit astro images across a range of categories including Skyscapes, Stars & Nebulae, Aurorae, Galaxies, Our Moon and Our Sun, among others.

For imaging tips, read our beginners' guide to astrophotography or our tutorial on deep-sky astrophotography.

Electric Wizardry by Shane Turgeon, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Category: Aurorae. Equipment: Canon 1DX camera, 14mm f/2.5, ISO 1000, 6-second exposure

2022 marks the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition's 14th year, with the winning images due to be announced in September.

£10,000 will be awarded to the overall winner, with runners-up and highly commended entries in each category receiving £1,500 and £750 respectively.

You can keep up with the competition by following BBC Sky at Night Magazine or Royal Museums Greenwich on social media, or by following the hashtag #APY14.

But for now, here's a selection of some of the judges' favourite images this year.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14 shortlist

Skyscapes

Circles and Curves, by Sean Goebel, California, USA. Category: Skyscapes. Equipment: Sony ILCE-7RIII camera, 12 mm f/2.8, ISO 2000, 33 x 4-minute exposures
Crossing the Madison, by Jake Mosher, Madison River, Montana, USA. Category: Skyscapes. Equipment: Nikon D850 camera, 35mm f/4, ISO 1600/640, multiple exposures between 110 and 180 seconds
Oregon Coast, by Marcin Zajac, Oregon, USA. Category: Skyscapes. Equipment: Nikon D800 camera, 35mm f/2, ISO 800, 4-minute exposure.
Ladder to the Stars, by Mihail Minkov, Shiroka Polyana Dam, Devin, Bulgaria. Category: Skyscapes. Equipment: Sony A7 III camera, 17 mm f/2.8, ISO 6400, 20-second exposure
Chidiya Tapu, by Vikas Chander, Chidiya Tapu, Andaman Islands, India. Category: Skyscapes. Equipment: Sony A7III camera, 12mm f/11 and f/2.8, ISO 100/800, 30-second and 240-second exposures
Diagonal, by Gen Kiryu, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Category: Skyscapes. Equipment: Nikon Z7 camera, 20mm f/1.8 lens. Sky: ISO 1600, 60-second exposure (stack of 35 frames). Foreground: ISO 2200, 30-second exposure (stack of 10 frames)

Stars & Nebulae

NGC 6888 – The Crescent Nebula by Bray Falls, Auberry, California, USA. Category: Stars & Nebulae. Equipment: ZWO-ASI6200MM-Cool camera, 3654 mm f/9, 45 hours of 10-minute exposures.
Suburbs of Carina Nebula by Ignacio Diaz Bobillo, General Pacheco, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Category: Stars & Nebulae. Equipment: QHY 600 camera, 1252mm f/7.2, 54 x 5-minute exposures in H-alpha and 61 x 5-min exposures in OIII (5 hours 24 minutes total exposure).
The Rolling Waves of Vela by Paul Milvain, Forbes, Victoria, Australia. Category: Stars & Nebulae. Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera, 1125 mm f/4, 9 x 300-second R/G/B exposures, 91 x 300- second H-alpha exposures, 53x 300-second SII exposures

People & Space

Moonrise Over Los Angeles by Sean Goebel, Los Angeles, California, USA. Category: People & Space. Equipment: Sony ILCE-7M3 camera, 324 mm f/8, ISO 200, 1/60-second exposure
Stacks and Stones by Derek Horlock, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, UK. Equipment: Nikon Z 6 Mark II camera, ISO 800., with Foreground: 24mm f/4, 300-second exposure. Sky:35mm f/4, 6 x 240-second exposures
Equinox Moon and Glastonbury Tor by Hannah Rochford, Glastonbury, Somerset, UK. Equipment: Sigma 150–600 mm telescope, SLIK tripod, Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, 600 mm f/6.37, 1/8-second exposure.
Riverside of Funakawa in Spring by Takanobu Kurosaki, Asahi, Shimoniikawa, Toyama, Japan. Equipment: Sony ILCE-7RM3 camera, 24 mm f/8, ISO 800, 13-second exposure.
The Starry Sky Over the World’s Highest National Highway by Yang Sutie, Shannan, Tibet. Equipment: SIGMA ILCE-1 camera, 20 mm f/2.8, ISO 800, 245-second total exposure.

Aurorae

Spectrum, by Stefan Liebermann, Vestrahorn, Iceland. Category: Aurorae Equipment: Sony ILCE-7SM3 camera, 14 mm f/1.8, 2-second exposure.
Solar Wind Power by Esa Pekka Isomursu, North Ostrobothnia, Finland. Category: Aurorae. Equipment: Canon R5 camera, at 14 mm f/2.8, 2-second exposure.
Electric Wizardry by Shane Turgeon, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Category: Aurorae. Equipment: Canon 1DX camera, 14mm f/2.5, ISO 1000, 6-second exposure
An Icelandic Saga by Carl Gallagher, Patreksfjörður, Westfjords, Iceland. Category: Aurorae. Equipment: Canon 6D Mark II camera, 24mm f/2, ISO 400, 10-second exposure.

Galaxies

Arp 271: Cosmic Collision by Mark Hanson, Mike Selby, El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region, Chile. Category: Galaxies. Equipment: CDK 1000 telescope, FLI 16803 camera,6000 mm f/6, 32 hours total exposure. RGB values captured using RiDK 700 FL 4900 telescope.
Hydra’s Pinwheel by Peter Ward, Barden Ridge, New South Wales, Australia. Category: Galaxies. Equipment: SBIG STX-16803 and QHY 600M cameras, at 3400 mm f/8, exposure of 5 hours (H-alpha) and 6 hours (RGB).
Interacting Galaxies in Eridanus by Terry Robison, Carrapooee, Victoria, Australia. Category: Galaxies. Equipment: RCOS 10-inch telescope, SBIG STL-11000 camera, 2305 mm f/9.1 for 27.83-hour total exposure.

Our Moon

Inverted Minerals by Noah Kujawski, Lakeville, Minnesota, USA. Category: Our Moon. Equipment: Celestron CPC 1100 telescope, ZWO-ASI183MC camera (uncooled), 2800 mm f/10, 6-millisecond video frame.
Above the Lunar South Pole by Tom Glenn, San Diego, California, USA. Category: Our Moon. Equipment: ZWO ASI183MM camera, 610-nm pass and green filters, 2350 mm f/10. A composite of two images, first: 500 x 10-millisecond exposures; second 250 x 18-milliseond exposures.
Fly over the South Pole by Andrea Vanoni, Porto Mantovano, Lombardy, Italy. Category: Our Moon. Equipment: ZWO ASI178MM camera, Newton 405mm ‘Ares’ f/4.5 and Barlow 2.7x lens.

Our Sun

Solar Inferno by Stuart Green, Preston, Lancashire, UK. Category: Our Sun. Equipment: Basler acA1920-155um camera, 5100 mm f/34, 2,500 x 0.02-second exposures (50-second total exposure). Using a home-built telescope fitted with a Lunt 35 H-alpha etalon filter.
Clouds of Hydrogen Gas by Simon Tang, Los Angeles, California, USA. Category: Our Sun. Equipment: QHYCCD QHY5III-174M camera, 5040mm f/33.6, 1000 x 12-millisecond frame exposures.
Partial Eclipse of the Sun in H-alpha by Alessandro Ravagnin, Romano d'Ezzelino, Veneto, Italy. Category: Our Sun. Equipment: QHYCCD QHYCCD183C camera, using a cooled Canon 200 mm f/4 with a Daystar Quark Prominence lens.

Planets, Comets & Asteroids

The Jovian Family by Damian Peach, Río Hurtado, Coquimbo, Chile. Category: Planets, Comets & Asteroids. Equipment: ZWO ASI174MM camera, multiple video frames.
Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) by Lionel Majzik, Hakos, Khomas, Namibia. Category: Planets, Comets & Asteroids. Equipment: QHY 600M camera, 600 mm f/3, 2 x 120-second exposures (Lum), 1 x 120-second exposure (RGB)
Saturn and its Moons by Flávio Fortunato, Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil. Category: Planets, Comets & Asteroids. Equipment: SVBONY SV305 camera, 1200 mm f/17, IR-cut filter, 0.02-second exposure.

The Annie Maunder Prize for Digital Innovation

Busy Star by Sergio Díaz Ruiz, using open source data from NOAA GOES-16, Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI)
Earth Cyanotype by Lynda Laird, Using open source data from Suomi NPP satellite.

The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Digital Innovation

Messier 78 by David Loose, Blanco, Texas, USA. Category: The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer. Equipment: ZWO ASI071MC Pro camera, 382 mm f/5.9, 90 x 300-second exposures. Using a William Optics Gran Turismo 81 IV telescope fitted with a Optolong L-Pro lens.
Radio Telescope by Liu Xuemei, Mingantu Town, Zhengxiangbai Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Category: The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer. Equipment: Nikon D810A camera, 35 mm f/4, 120-second total exposure

Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year

IC 1871 – A Little Devil Riding on the Head of a Dragon by Nan Wang, Binyu Wang, Location: Enjoy Observatory, China. Category: Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year. Equipment: ZWO ASI6200MM PRO camera, 1100 mm f/7.3, 32-hour total exposure
Pickering’s Triangle in Light-Polluted City by Zezhen Zhou, Keqiao, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China. Category: Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year. Equipment: SONY IMX533 and ZWO ASI533MC PRO cameras, 714mm f/7, 6-hour total exposure.

Iain Todd

Science journalist

Iain Todd is BBC Sky at Night Magazine's Content Editor. He fell in love with the night sky when he caught his first glimpse of Orion, aged 10.
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