{"id":775693,"date":"2026-07-02T15:13:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/775693\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T15:13:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:13:39","slug":"these-are-among-the-best-space-images-weve-ever-seen-the-worlds-biggest-astro-imaging-competition-has-just-released-its-shortlisted-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/775693\/","title":{"rendered":"These are among the best space images we’ve ever seen. The world’s biggest astro-imaging competition has just released its shortlisted photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

The shortlisted images of the 2026 ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition have been announced by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.<\/p>\n

ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year is the biggest astrophotography competition in the world, welcoming thousands of entries every year from photographers across the globe.<\/p>\n

This year, the competition had nearly 4,000 entries from amateur and professional astro-imagers alike, submitted from 66 different countries.<\/p>\n

More from ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Andromeda Core \u00a9 Weitang Liang, Qi Yang, Chuhong Yu (China)<\/p>\n

The shortlisted images for 2026 include the partial solar eclipse of 29 March 2025<\/a>, a full Moon over the Paris skyline, eagle-shaped aurora and vivid views of planets, galaxies and distant cosmic clouds.<\/p>\n

The winners of the 2026 ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition are set to be announced on Thursday 17 September 2026.<\/p>\n

Then the winners and a selection of shortlisted images will be displayed in a public exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in London, UK from 18 September.<\/p>\n

Keep up to date with the competition by following Royal Museums Greenwich on social media or via the hashtag #APY18.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, here are this year’s shortlisted images in their respective categories.<\/p>\n

Aurorae
\n\"AnAn Auroral Deluge \u00a9 Julien Cadena (France), Aurorae category. Taken with a Sony Alpha 7 IV camera, 14 mm f\/2.8, ISO 3200, 1-second exposure. Location: Lyngen, Troms, Norway, 20 January 2026
\n\"AuroraAurora Over Causey Reservoir \u00a9 Samuel Morse (USA), Aurorae category.Taken with a Sony ILCE-7M4 camera, tripod, Laowa AF 10 mm f\/2.8 Zero-D lens, 10 mm f\/2.8, ISO 1600, 30-second exposure. Location: Weber County, Utah, USA, 11 November 2025
\n\"EagleEagle Aurora \u00a9 Jennifer Rogers (UK), Aurorae category. Taken with an astro-modified Canon EOS R6 Mk II camera, 15 mm f\/2.8, Foreground: ISO 3200, 2 x 8-second exposures; Sky: ISO 6400, 2-second exposure. Location: Flakstad, Lofoten, Norway, 19 February 2026<\/p>\n

Galaxies
\n\"CosmicCosmic Neighbours: Beauty and the Beast \u00a9 Yijing Zhu and Xinghan Yang (Both China), Galaxies category. Taken with a Sky Rover 155 APO Pro telescope, iOptron CEM70 mount, QHYCCD QHY600M camera, 992 mm f\/6.4, 600 seconds per frame, 49 hours total integration. Location: \u00dcr\u00fcmqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, 17, 20, 28, 30 November and 25 December 2025
\n\"TheThe Crimson Vortex and Sapphire Blossoms of Andromeda \u00a9 Chuhong Yu and Zuoming Wang (Both China), Galaxies category. Taken with a Sky Rover 130 mm APO Pro telescope, ScorpioAstro 50-mm LRGB and 7-nm H-alpha and OIII filters, Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 PRO mount, QHYCCD QHY600PH-M SBFL (short back focal length) camera, 910 mm f\/7, 111 hours and 25 minutes total exposure. Location: Zhuanghe City, Liaoning Province, China, 26\u201327, 29\u201331 August, 1\u20132, 13\u201324, 26\u201329 September and 16\u201321 October 2025<\/p>\n

Our Moon
\n\"ShadowShadow Moon \u00a9 Richard Addis (UK), Our Moon category. Taken with a Celestron NexStar 6SE telescope, Celestron Advanced GT mount, ZWO ASI120MC camera, 1,500 mm f\/10, approximately 7,000 x 1\u20136-millisecond exposures. Location: Wallasey, Merseyside, England, 31 March\u201314 April 2025
\n\"SupermoonSupermoon Path Over Paris at Sunset \u00a9 Martin Giraud (France), Our Moon category. Taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, Sigma 150-600 mm lens, 500 mm f\/8, ISO 100, 1\/60-second exposure. Location: Meudon, \u00cele-de-France, France, 3 January 2026
\n\"WatchedWatched by the Moon \u00a9 Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Gely (France), Our Moon category. Taken with a Sky-Watcher 80ED telescope, Sony ILCE-7S camera, 600 mm f\/7.5, ISO 400, 1\/500-second exposure. Location: Arvieux, Provence-Alpes-C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, France, 5 November 2025<\/p>\n

Our Sun
\n\"MoodyMoody Partial Solar Eclipse \u00a9 James McBeath (UK), Our Sun category. Taken with a Sony ILCE-7 camera, Canon EF 300 mm USM lens with 2x teleconverter, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini mount, Pig Iron 720-nm R-72 Infrared filter, 600 mm f\/18, ISO 100, 1\/3,200-second exposure. Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, 29 March 2025
\n\"SuspendedSuspended Plasma \u00a9 Mario Cogo (Italy), Our Sun category. Taken with a home-built refractor, iStar Optical H-alpha 150 mm f\/10 lens, Solar Spectrum 0.5A\u00b0 H-alpha filter, Lunt 40 and Baader TZ-4 telecentric system, Astro-Physics 1200GTO mount, Player One Astronomy Apollo M-Max camera, 6,000 mm f\/40, 33 x 10.6-millisecond exposures. Location: Monticello Conte Otto, Vicenza, Italy, 15 May 2025
\n\"TheThe Savannah Tree \u00a9 Rafael Schmall (Hungary), Our Sun category. Taken with a Lunt LS100 telescope, Lunt B1800 filter, Fornax 150 mount, ZWO ASI174MM camera, 700 mm f\/7, Gain 180, 6-second exposure. Location: Somogy County, Southern Transdanubia, Hungary, 18 February 2026<\/p>\n

People & Space
\n\"FairylandFairyland \u00a9 Uro\u0161 Fink (Slovenia), People and Space category. Taken with an astro-modified Nikon Z 6II camera, Move Shoot Move Nomad star tracker, 20 mm, Foreground: f\/2.0, ISO 1600, 8 x 60-second focus-stacked exposures; Sky: f\/2.0, ISO 800, 5 x 60-second exposures. Location: Velika Planina, Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Slovenia, 28 April 2025
\n\"FifteenFifteen Minutes of Moonset and Sunrise Over the Golden Gate \u00a9 Fredric Walder (USA), People and Space category. Taken with a Nikon Z 8 camera, 150 to 380 mm, f\/9, ISO 1000, multiple 1.25- to 2.5-millisecond exposures. Location: San Francisco, California, USA, 2 February 2026
\n\"GoldenGolden Moonrise Over Seattle \u00a9 AJ Smadi (USA), People and Space category. Taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, 600 mm f\/7.1, ISO 800, 1\/125-second exposure. Location: Seattle, Washington, USA, 11 July 2025<\/p>\n

People & Space
\n\"VortexVortex \u00a9 Jennifer Rogers (UK), People and Space category. Taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera, 14 mm f\/2.8, ISO 1600, Foreground: 1 x 60-second exposure; Star trail: 72 x 60-second exposures. Location: West Wheal Owles, Cornwall, England, 22 February 2025
\nPlanets, Comets & Asteroids
\n\"CometComet C\/2025 A6 (Lemmon) Over the Swiss Alps \u00a9 Jakob Sahner (Germany), Planets, Comets and Asteroids category. Taken with a Nikon Z 7 camera, Move Shoot Move Nomad star tracker, TTArtisans AF 85 mm f\/1.8 lens, 85 mm f\/2.2, ISO 800, Foreground: 120-second exposure; Sky: 38 x 30-second exposures. Location: Tujetsch, Graub\u00fcnden, Switzerland, 18 October 2025
\n\"MarsMars in 2025 \u00a9 Tom Williams (UK), Planets, Comets and Asteroids category. Taken with a custom 600 mm (24\u2033) Dobsonian reflector, UV\/IR cut filter, Player-One Astronomy Uranus-C camera, 10,500 mm f\/17.5, multiple 10-millisecond exposures. Location: Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, 3 January, 16, 25 February, 15, 22 March, 13 and 27 April 2025<\/p>\n

Skyscapes
\n\"II Hear the Stars \u00a9 Jo\u00e3o Yordanov Serralheiro (Portugal), Skyscapes category. Taken with a Sony Alpha 7 III camera, 35 mm f\/2.8, ISO 400, 120 x 30-second exposures. Location: Aldeburgh Beach, Suffolk, England, 30 November 2025
\n\"MeteorMeteor Shower Over the Big Dipper \u00a9 ZhiPu Wang (China), Skyscapes category. Taken with a Nikon Z f camera, Viltrox 16 mm lens, 16 mm f\/2, ISO 8000, 4-second exposure. Location: Sanming, Fujian Province, China, 15 December 2025
\n\"PathPath Towards the Stars \u00a9 Matteo Strassera (Italy), Skyscapes category. Taken with a Canon EOS R5 camera, Benro Polaris tripod head, Foreground: 14 mm f\/4, ISO 4320, 8 x 121-second exposures; Sky: 35 mm f\/1.6, ISO 400, 32 x 60-second exposures. Location: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, 25 June 2025
\n\"Setsu-getsu-kaSetsu-getsu-ka \u00a9 Takanobu Kurosaki (Japan), Skyscapes category. Taken with a Sony ILCE-7RM5 camera, Sony FE 24\u2013105 mm f\/4 G OSS lens, 29 mm f\/4, ISO 800, 6-second exposure. Location: Asahi, Toyama Prefecture, Japan, 9 April 2025
\n\"TeTe Hoho Rock Moonrise \u00a9 Evan McKay (Aotearoa\/New Zealand), Skyscapes category. Taken with a Nikon Z 6a camera, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount, Move Shoot Move Nomad star tracker, Sigma 40 mm Art lens, Optolong L-Para filter, 40 mm, Foreground: f\/2.8, ISO 800, 30-second exposure; Sky: f\/2, ISO 1600, multiple 15-second RGB exposures, multiple 2-minute exposures with filter. Location: Cathedral Cove, Waikato, North Island, Aotearoa New Zealand, 8 January 2026
\n\"TheThe Celestial Gate \u00a9 Yoshiki Abe (Japan), Skyscapes category. Taken with a Sony ILCE-7RM5 camera, 200 mm, Foreground: f\/5.6, ISO 320, 240-second exposure; Sky: f\/4.0, ISO 3200, 34 x 60-second exposures; H-alpha: f\/2.8, ISO 6400, 28 x 120-second exposures. Location: Kitsuki, \u014cita Prefecture, Japan, 22 February 2026<\/p>\n

Stars & Nebulae
\n\"AA Deep Look Into the Milky Way’s Core \u00a9 Jakob Sahner (Germany), Stars and Nebulae category. Taken with a Sony Alpha 7 III and Nikon Z 6 cameras, Samyang 135 mm f\/2 lens, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi mount, 135 mm f\/2, ISO 1600, 1,950 x 90-second H-alpha exposures, 2,182 x 90-second RGB exposures. Location: Koireb, Windhoek Rural, Namibia, 19 May\u20131 June 2025
\n\"GumGum 37: The Southern Tadpoles (or ‘Teapot Nebula’) \u00a9 Ani Shastry (USA), Stars and Nebulae category. Taken with a PlaneWave Instruments CDK20 telescope, PlaneWave Instruments CDK500 mount, Moravian Instruments C3-61000 Pro camera, 3,454 mm f\/6.8, 20 x 1,200-second H-alpha exposures, 20 x 1,200-second OIII exposures, 20 x 1,200-second SII exposures, 30 x 120-second R, G and B exposures, 23 hours total exposure. Location: El Sauce Observatory, R\u00edo Hurtado, Chile, 10 February 2026
\n\"NGCNGC 7293: The Helix Nebula \u00a9 Humbert C\u00e9dric (France), Stars and Nebulae category. Taken with a TS-Optics 14\u2033 ONTC f\/5 telescope, 50-nm H-alpha and OIII filters, Optolong L-Pro 2\u2033 and L-Ultimate 2\u2033 filters, Sky-Watcher EQ8 mount, Player One Astronomy Poseidon-MM camera, 1,800 mm f\/5, 180 x 300-second H-alpha exposures (15 hours), 120 x 300-second OIII exposures (10 hours), 60 x 300-second Optolong L-Pro 2\u2033 exposures (5 hours), 130 x 300-second Optolong L-Ultimate 2\u2033 exposures (10 hours 50 minutes), 43 hours total exposure. Location: Elqui Province, Coquimbo, Chile, 14 September 2025<\/p>\n

Best newcomer
\n\"ColourfulColourful Aurora and Waterfall \u00a9 Yifan Cao (China), Best Newcomer. Taken with a Nikon Z 6III camera, 16 mm f\/2.2, ISO 4000, 6-second exposure. Location: Go\u00f0afoss Waterfall, \u00deingeyjarsveit, Iceland, 27 February 2025<\/p>\n

ZWO Young Astronomer
\n\"DancingDancing Flames \u00a9 \u4e0e\u6668 \u6797, aged 14 (China), ZWO Young Astronomer. Taken with an Acuter Elite Phoenix 40 H-Alpha solar telescope, ZWO AM5 mount, ToupTek G3M678M camera, 400 mm f\/10, 1,000 x 10-millisecond exposures. Location: Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, 11 February 2026<\/p>\n

Annie Maunder Open Category
\n\"SolargraphSolargraph 182 Days \u00a9 Ksawery Wrobel (USA), Annie Maunder Open Category. Taken with a homemade pinhole camera, Kodak Kodabrome II RC paper, 23.5 mm f\/130, 182 days total exposure from 17 July 2022\u201315 January 2023<\/p>\n

Are you an astrophotographer? Share your best images with us by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The shortlisted images of the 2026 ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition have been announced by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,66,306],"class_list":["post-775693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}