Winners of Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 announced

The Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the results of its hugely popular, global photographic competition, a yearly contest to find the most beautiful and spectacular visions of the cosmos.

At a ceremony on 23 October 2018 at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, UK, the winners of this year’s Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition were announced. All of the winning photographs will be available for viewing in a retrospective celebrating the first ten years of the competition at the new Photography Gallery at the National Maritime Museum from 24 October 2018. ESO played a part by contributing a judge, Oana Sandu, from its education and Public Outreach Department.

This year’s overall winner, who receives a cash prize of £10,000, was Brad Goldpaint of the USA. His spectacular image Transport the Soul was taken from Moab, USA.

“Once the quarter moon rose, it revealed the incredible, vast landscape of the shale hills below our viewpoint. (…) The Andromeda Galaxy, quarter Moon, Milky Way Galaxy, and position of the photographer all combined to create a captivating, harmonious portrait of a night sky photographer at work,” Brad described the photo.

The prizewinners in all of the categories are:

Skyscapes — Landscape and cityscape images of twilight and the night sky featuring the Milky Way, star trails, meteor showers, comets, conjunctions, constellation rises, halos and noctilucent clouds, alongside elements of earthly scenery

• Ferenc Szémár (Hungary) with Circumpolar (Winner)
• Chuanjin Su (China) with Eclipsed Moon Trail (Runner Up)
• Ruslan Merzlyakov (Latvia) with Midnight Glow over Limfjord (Highly Commended)

Aurorae —  Photographs featuring the Northern and Southern Lights

• Nicolas Lefaudeux (France) with Speeding on the Aurora Lane (Winner)
• Matthew James Turner (UK) with Castlerigg Stone Circle (Runner Up)
• Mikkel Beiter (Denmark) with Aurorascape (Highly Commended)

People and Space —  Photographs of the night sky including people or a human interest element

• Brad Goldpaint (USA) with Transport the Soul (Winner and Overall Winner)
• Andrew Whyte (UK) with Living Space (Runner Up)
• Marc McNeill (UK) with Me versus the Galaxy (Highly Commended)

Our Sun — Solar images including solar eclipses and transits

• Nicolas Lefaudeux (France) with Sun King, Little King, and God of War (Winner)
• Stuart Green (UK) with Coloured Eruptive Prominence (Runner Up)
• Haiyang Zong (China) with AR2673 (Highly Commended)

Our Moon — Lunar images including lunar eclipses and occultations of planets

• Jordi Delpeix Borrell (Spain) with Inverted Colours of the Boundary between Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis (Winner)
• Peter Ward (Australia) with Earth Shine (Runner Up)
• László Francsics (Hungary) with From the Dark Side (Highly Commended)

Planets, Comets and Asteroids — Everything else in the Solar System, including planets and their satellites, comets, asteroids and other forms of zodiacal debris

• Martin Lewis (UK) with The Grace of Venus (Winner)
• Martin Lewis (UK) with Parade of the Planets (Runner Up)
• Gerald Rhemann (Austria) with Comet C/2016 R2 Panstarrs the blue carbon monoxide comet (Highly Commended)

Stars and Nebulae — Deep space objects within the Milky Way Galaxy, including stars, star clusters, supernova remnants, nebulae and other intergalactic phenomena

• Mario Cogo (Italy) with Corona Australis Dust Complex (Winner)
• Mario Cogo (Italy) with Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula (Runner Up)
• Rolf Wahl Olsen (Denmark) with Thackeray’s Globules in Narrowband Colour (Highly Commended)

Galaxies — Deep space objects beyond the Milky Way Galaxy, including galaxies, galaxy clusters, and stellar associations

• Steven Mohr (Australia) NGC 3521 – Mysterious Galaxy (Winner)
• Raul Villaverde Fraile (Spain) with From Mirach (Runner Up)
• Cesar Blanco (Spain) with Fireworks Galaxy NGC6939-SN 2017 EAW (Highly Commended)

Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year — Pictures taken by budding astronomers under 16 years of age

• Fabian Dalpiaz (Italy— aged 15) by Great Autumn Morning (Winner)
• Logan Nicholson (Australia — aged 13) with The Eta Carinae Nebula (Runner Up)
• Thea Hutchinson (UK — aged 11) with Inverted Sun (Highly Commended)
• Davy van der Hoeven (Netherlands— aged 10) with A Valley on the Moon (Highly Commended)
• Casper Kentish (UK — aged 8) First Impressions (Highly Commended)

Special prize: The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer

• Tianhong Li (China) with Galaxy Curtain Call Performance

Special prize: Robotic Scope

• Damian Peach (UK) with Two Comets with the Pleiades

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, in association with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

Courtesy of European Southern Observatory