Stars trailing around a lone Dragon’s Blood tree; the remnants of an exploded star 800 lightyears from Earth; powerful aurora generated by an immense solar storm.
These are the winning images of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award 2025.
Run by Royal Museums Greenwich in London, UK, Astronomy Photographer of the Year is the biggest astrophotography competition in the world.
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Each year it welcomes hundreds of images of the night sky from entrants across the globe, with a panel of judges selecting the top captures and the overall winner.
The competition’s annual People’s Choice Award selects the best images, as voted by members of the public.
Winner
The People’s Choice Award winner of the 2025 competition has been announced as 'Dragon Tree Trails' by Benjamin Barakat, captured from from Firmihin Forest, Hidaybu District, Socotra, Yemen.
It shows a lone Dragon's Blood tree set against the backdrop of multiple arches of trailing stars.
'Star trail' images like these show the apparent movement of the stars across the sky, caused by Earth rotating on its axis.
"To capture the stars’ movements, I took 300 individual exposures and stacked them to create the final image," says Benjamin.
"One key technique to achieving clean, vibrant trails is underexposing slightly with a low ISO.
"Thanks to the ISO invariance of my Sony camera, I could recover shadow details in post-processing without compromising quality.
"This scene was truly magical – one of my favourite star trail images from around the world."
Second place
Second place in the People's Choice award has gone to 'The Vela Supernova Remnant' by Steeve Body.
Captured from Fisher, South Australia, it shows a cosmic cloud – a nebula – known as the Vela supernova remnant.
It's all that remains of a massive star that exploded long ago.
"Spanning seven degrees and captured in natural colour, this high-resolution image is one of the deepest and most detailed ever taken of this region," says Steeve.
"The glowing gases have been mapped using narrowband and colour filters in a way that enhances their natural appearance: hydrogen glows red, oxygen shines blue and sulphur appears as a yellow hue.
"This technique reveals faint structures that would otherwise remain hidden, offering an unprecedented look at the intricate patterns left behind by this cosmic explosion.
"Visible only from the southern hemisphere, this stunning SNR was captured from the Australian outback under some of the darkest skies in the world."
Third place
Third place goes to 'Raining Down On Dunstanburgh Castle' by Peter Greig. It shows an aurora display over Embleton Bay, Alnwick, Northumberland, UK.
"This photo was captured during an intense solar storm – the most powerful I’ve ever witnessed in the UK," says Pete.
"Typically, I would set up on the castle’s south side, aiming my camera north to photograph the aurora. However, on this exceptional night, I chose a different approach.
"I moved to the castle’s north side and pointed my camera south-east, seizing a rare opportunity to frame the aurora above the castle from a unique perspective.
"Even with a wide angle lens, I could not capture the entire scene in a single image, so I flipped my camera into landscape orientation and shot three images to create this vertorama [vertical panorama]."
Entries have now closed for the 2026 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, but the winning images will be announced in September 2026, with the top entries to be exhibited at the National Maritime Museum in London, UK.
