The Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the finalists for the 2026 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The competition drew nearly 4,000 submissions from 769 photographers in 66 countries.
Technical and Artistic Merit
Entries include photographs of auroras, galaxies, and landscapes of Earth’s moon. Some images are impressive from a technical standpoint, said Greg Brown, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory and a judge for the competition.
Finalist Tom Williams highlights several views of Mars within a year, all in a single composite image titled “Mars in 2025.” Finalist Rafael Schmall photographed “The Savannah Tree” from Hungary, capturing a solar prominence — or a dense plasma cloud — erupting in the shape of an acacia tree from the surface of the sun.
The winning images will be announced September 17 and will be displayed in an exhibition at London’s National Maritime Museum, alongside a selection of other short-listed images.
Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
