Slideshow: Winners of the 2022 Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards

Winners of the 2022 Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards

Winners in each of the 11 categories for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Awards were announced in a live event on September 15th. Put on by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the 14th annual competition received over 3,000 entries from 67 countries. DPReview covered some of the shortlisted images recently.

Astronomer Greg Leonard’s image of a tail being separated from Comet C/2021 A1, captured on Christmas Day, was declared the Overall Winner. Shortlisted and winning images are currently on display at the National Maritime Museum.

Overall Winner: ‘Disconnection Event’ by Gerald Rhemann

About this Image: The remarkable image shows Comet C/2021 A1, commonly known as Comet Leonard, which was first discovered in January 2021 by astronomer Greg Leonard. For many astrophotographers this comet was the highlight of the year, with almost a quarter of submissions to the Planets, Comets and Asteroids category featuring the icy visitor.

However, it was Gerald Rhemann’s photograph, taken on Christmas Day, that really blew the judges away.

Gerald’s image captured a dramatic moment in the life of a comet: a disconnection event. This happens when a piece of the comet’s tail becomes separated after being hit by high velocity solar particles.

“A piece of Comet Leonard’s tail was pinched off and carried away by the solar wind,” Gerald recalls. “I was very lucky that the weather at Tivoli Farm, Namibia, was excellent when I opened the roof of the observatory. I recognized that the comet’s tail looked dramatic in the first image I took, so decided to extend the field of view with a second image and that’s where the disconnection happened.”

This award-winning photograph is the result.

“Astronomy, myth and art come together beautifully in this shot,” says competition judge Imad Ahmed. “It holds great value to scientists, as it elegantly captures a disconnection event. Yet this photograph, which was taken on Christmas Day, seems to tell an otherworldly story too – it could be the Star of Bethlehem, an angel or a fairy soaring through the night sky.”

Skyscapes Winner: ‘Stabbing into the Stars’ by Zihui Hu

About this Image: “Namcha Barwa is the most beautiful snow-capped mountain in China,” Zihui says.

“The name of the mountain in Tibetan means ‘spear thrusting into the sky’. This untouched land is also home to the purest of starry skies, the trails of which weave a wide net even on Full Moon days. Namcha Barwa, like a spear, pierces this net.”

Equipment Used: Sony ILCE-7R3 camera, Tamron 150–500mm lens, 150mm f5.6, 75 x 30-second exposures

Our Sun Winner: ‘A Year in the Sun’ by Soumyadeep Mukherjee

About this Image: “I imaged the Sun for 365 days between 25 December 2020 and 31 December 2021, missing just six days during this period. The project started with the aim of recording the journey of a single sunspot across the solar disc, but I managed to continue it for a year,” says Soumyadeep.

“I blended the images to create a single shot, which records the rise of Solar Cycle 25. A total of 127 active regions appeared on the Earth-facing solar disc (AR 12794–AR 12921) during this phase and the image shows all of them. The sunspots create two bands on the solar disc, around 15–35 degrees north and south of the equator and gradually start drifting towards it – a phenomenon known as Spörer’s law.”

Equipment Used: Nikon D5600 camera, Sigma 150–600c lens, Thousand Oaks Filter (White-Light), 600 mm f/6.3, ISO 100, 365 individual exposures (1/80-second to 1/500-second)

Our Moon Winner: ‘Shadow Profile of Plato’s East Rim’ by Martin Lewis

About this Image: “Once a month the Sun rises over the giant lunar crater Plato and casts huge shadows from its east rim across its lava-filled floor,” Martin says.

“Occasionally this event coincides with a night of good seeing and the view through the eyepiece is spectacular. The night of 20 April 2021 was one such rare night – with the Moon high overhead and steady skies, the dark, projected rim-profile was visible in exquisite detail. One finger-shaped shadow could be seen stretching nearly 45 miles!

“The image was taken with a mono camera using an infra-red filter to further steady the views and maximize the amount of detail recorded.”

Equipment Used: Home-built 444 mm Dobsonian Newtonian reflector telescope, home-built Equatorial Tracking Platform mount, Astronomik 642nm IR filter lens, ZWO ASI174MM camera, 12.8 m f/29, multiple 29-millisecond exposures

Galaxies Winner: ‘Majestic Sombrero Galaxy’ by Utkarsh Mishra, Michael Petrasko and Muir Evenden

About this Image: “This image shows the faint star streams that were created when a smaller galaxy collided with, and its remnants then began to orbit, the Milky Way,” explain the photographers.

Speaking of the image’s composition, “We made three versions of the photograph: a muted version for the background, a regular version for the disc and a super-stretched starless version for the stellar streams and halo. They were then combined into a single image.”

Equipment Used: ATEO 16″ f/3.7 Dreamscope Astrograph Newtonian telescope, Paramount ME II mount, Baader LRGB filter, FLI Proline 16803 CCD camera, 1558 mm f/3.7, 56 x 300-second Lum. exposures (10 hours total exposure), 1×1 binning

People and Space Winner: ‘The International Space Station Transiting Tranquility Base’ by Andrew McCarthy

About this Image: “This image features the International Space Station (ISS) positioned directly over the Apollo 11 Moon-landing site on the Sea of Tranquility.” Andrew recalls.

“The moment only lasted a handful of milliseconds and required me to precisely position myself on Earth to capture the pass at the perfect time. This image was achieved by shooting at very high frame rates and fast shutter speeds at 2,800 mm to capture the station and the Moon in such crisp detail.”

Equipment Used: Celestron C11 and Explore Scientific AR127 telescopes, iOptron CEM70 mount, UV/IR Cut filter, ZWO ASI174MM and Sony A7 II cameras, 2,800 mm f/10, 0.3-millisecond exposure

Aurorae Winner: ‘In the Embrace of a Green Lady’ by Filip Hrebenda

About this Image: “I took this photo during the late spring in one of my favourite places in Iceland,” Filip remembers.

“The photo shows the dancing Aurora Borealis, reflected in a little frozen lake, above the Eystrahorn mountain.”

Equipment Used: Sony ILCE-7RM3A camera, 16 mm f/2.8, ISO 2500; Sky: 5-second exposure; Foreground: 20-second exposure

The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer: ‘The Milky Way Bridge across Big Snowy Mountains’ by Lun Deng

About this Image: “On a cold winter night, at about three or four o’clock in the morning, I was waiting at the top of a mountain and desperately hoping that two natural visual feasts would converge,” Lun says.

“Eventually the Minya Konka Mountain, the highest peak in Sichuan, China, had an early spring appointment with the Milky Way.”

Equipment Used: Nikon D810 camera, 35 mm f/1.6, ISO 2000, multiple 30-second exposures

The Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation: ‘Solar Tree’ by Pauline Woolley

About this Image: “The making of this work derived from my research into carbon-14 traces found in some studies of tree-ring dating or dendrochronology,” Pauline explains.

“Twenty-six images of the Sun from the first part of Solar Cycle 25 have been layered to create concentric rings. The oldest ‘ring’ lies in the centre while the most recent sits furthest away. Month by month, the rings expand or ‘grow’ to form the rings of an imaginary solar tree. The overall image is a marking of the passing of time, which incorporates visual evidence of increasing levels of solar activity apparent in the dark markings of solar flares.”

Equipment Used: Original images from the AIA 0131 Angstrom channel of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) (1 January 2020 to 1 February 2022). Images inverted then converted to black and white and contrast increased. Warm filter applied to give tree-like feeling

Stars and Nebulae Winner: ‘The Eye of God’ by Weitang Liang

About this Image: “This ultra-deep exposure of the ‘Eye of God’, also known as the Helix Nebula or NGC 7293, reveals the glorious colours of the core and rarely seen surrounding details,” Weitang explains.

“I was very curious to enhance all the faint but high-contrast details that are never seen in other images. So, I used 30-minute sub-exposures in both H-alpha and OIII emissions throughout the observable season. Finally, I got 22.5 hours of perfect data. I tried my best to make the image ‘Hubble-like’ and was lucky enough to get this result.

“The core appears in purple and cyan, creating an ethereal and dreamy feeling. The stunning orange, red and yellow outer region shows the power of the cosmos – all the matter is moving, colliding and tumbling.”

Equipment Used: ASA N20 f/3.8 Newtonian telescope, ASA DDM85 mount, FLI Proline 16803 camera, 500 mm f/3.8, 22.5 hours total exposure

Young Competition Winner: ‘Andromeda Galaxy: The Neighbour’ by Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen

About this Image: “The Andromeda Galaxy, or Messier 31 (M31), is one of the closest and largest neighbours of the Milky Way,” Yang and Zhou say.

“M31 is also the most distant object the human eye can see. When you look at it with the naked eye it’s like a fog, but through the telescope it shows its magnificence.”

Equipment Used: SkyWatcher 150/750P telescope, iOptron CEM70 mount, Antlia LRGB, HYO H-alpha filter, ZWO ASI294MM Pro camera, 750 mm f/5, 17 hours total exposure