The overall winner of Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 16 is Ryan Imperio for his photograph, Distorted Shadows of the Moon’s Surface Created by an Annular Eclipse, that captures the progression of Baily’s beads during the 2023 annular eclipse.
Baily’s beads are formed when sunlight shines through the valleys and craters of the Moon’s surface, breaking the eclipse’s well-known ring pattern, and are only visible when the Moon either enters or exits an eclipse. These are a challenge to capture due to their brevity and the precise timing needed. The image will be on display alongside the winners of the other categories in the accompanying exhibition, opening at the National Maritime Museum on Friday, September 13.
Mr Imperio said: “The images selected each year are absolutely astonishing and I am both thrilled and honoured to have my photo among them. I had hoped my image would be shared in some way, but never expected to be selected as a winner, let alone overall winner.”
The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is run by Royal Observatory Greenwich, supported by Liberty Specialty Marketsand in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine. For the 2024 competition, there were more than 3,500 entries from 58 countries
9. This image shows the dust and gas formations around the star Antares. As this part of the sky is barely visible from Hungary, the photographer travelled to Namibia as part of an astrophotography expedition to capture this image. A telephoto lens was used to achieve the huge field-of-view but the photographer still needed to create a five-panel mosaic (three panels RGB and two panels of H-alpha) to be able to show this huge region in one picture. Taken with a Samyang 135mm f2 ED UMC, Astronomik Deep-Sky RGB and 6nm H-alpha bandpass filters, Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 GT mount, 135 mm f/2, 3 x 300-second R exposures, 3 x 300-second G exposures, 20 x 300-second B exposures, 2 panels of 60 x 300-second H-alpha exposures Location: Isabis Farm, Namibia
Stars & Nebulae Highly Commended - Antares Region by Bence Tóth Hungary | Bence Tóth