The Royal Observatory Greenwich annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year Award has 11 categories and receives submissions from around the globe. Here is the 2022 overall winner, Comet Leonard, taken by Gerald Rhemann. (Gerald Rhemann)
Taking photos of our universe is hard work, but the winners and contestants in the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition make it look easy.
People who take images of the cosmos are called astrophotographers, and it can become an obsession. But they come from all walks of life, with varying degrees of equipment and know-how from all around the globe. But what they all have in common is a love of our night sky and the desire to share it with others.
Taking astronomical photos requires a lot of patience. For deep-sky images — like nebulas, galaxies and star clusters —most astrophotographers use special cameras that attach to their telescopes.
Much like space telescopes, the photographers often use different filters, such as red, green and blue, but sometimes others that only allow particular wavelengths to show up on the sensor. They take many images in each filter, leaving the camera’s shutter open for varying amounts of time, sometimes 10 minutes or more, depending on how dim the object is.
Then, using special astrophotography software, they stack those images together — imagine literally adding photos one on top of the other; this sharpens the image and reduces what photographers call noise. This produces the final colour image that can then be processed using different photographic software.
Here are some of the winners of this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year, along with honourable mentions and special considerations.
Disconnection Event
Gerald Rhemann was the overall winner in the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year Awards for this image of Comet Leonard taken at the Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, Khomas, Namibia. (Gerald Rhemann)
The overall winner of the award was Gerald Rhemann for the above image of Comet Leonard, which was discovered by G.J. Leonard on Jan. 3, 2021. The comet made its closest pass of Earth in December 2021.
Comets are balls of dust and ice that orbit the sun. As comets — often called “dirty snowballs” — near the sun, their tails can elongate and become brighter.
Rhemann’s image shows the comet on Dec. 25, 2021, where a noticeable part of its tail was pinched off and carried away by solar wind.
Unfortunately, Comet Leonard disintegrated in early 2022 and will not be seen again.
The Jovian Family
The massive Jupiter, taken by Damian Peach from the El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Coquimbo, Chile, 5 August 2021 (Damian Peach )
Damian Peach is an accomplished astrophotographer, with most of his images focusing on Jupiter and Saturn. He won runner-up in the Planets, Comets and Asteroids category.
He took an image of our solar system’s biggest planet, Jupiter, together with three of its largest moons — Ganymede, Io and Europa — from Chile in August 2021.
Also visible is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a storm that has been brewing across the planet for at least 400 years.
Cosmic Rose
A cosmic rose is seen here taken by Lionel Majzik in October 2021. (Lionel Majzik)
Lionel Majzik took this image of Comet 4P/Faye in front of a nebula known as Lower’s Nebula or Sh2-261 in the constellation Orion. This image was highly commended in the Planets, Comets and Asteroids category.
He used a remote telescope located in Mayhill, N.M., and was able to capture this rose-like nebula with the comet creating what looks like a green stem.
Misty Green River
The only Canadian to place in the final winners was Fred Bailey, who photographed the dancing aurora over Cameron River, N.W.T. (Fred Bailey)
Canadian Fred Bailey was the runner up in the aurora category. He captured the magnificence of the northern lights over Cameron River near Yellowknife on Sept. 1, 2021.
He took this shot using only a camera with an 18-mm lens and a 15-second exposure.
Winged Aurora
Another beautiful display of the northern lights is seen here like an angel in the sky. (Alexander Stepanenko)
A highly commended image in the Aurora category is this one by Alexander Stepanenko. He photographed an almost angel-like aurora against a clear sky in Murmansk, Russia, on Jan. 15, 2022. This was just a 1.6-second exposure.
“Aurora pictures are always beautiful to look at, but never have such images stopped me in my tracks like this one,” said judge Melissa Brobby.
“This wonderfully fortunate capture is simplistic in its beauty, but the sheer majesty of the winged aurora looming over the mountain is breathtaking. I haven’t stopped looking at this picture in awe.”
Majestic Sombrero Galaxy
This image of the Sombrero Galaxy was a collaboration between three astrophotographers. (Utkarsh Mishra, Michael Petrasko, Muir Evenden)
The Sombrero Galaxy is a favourite of many astrophotographers. This image was a collaboration between Utkarsh Mishra, Michael Petrasko and Muir Evenden. The images were taken from Pie Town, N.M., on May 5, 2021.
The galaxy seems to be hanging in a jewel box of stars with faint dusty star streams that were created when a smaller galaxy collided with our Milky Way Galaxy. The image won in the Galaxies category.
A Giant in the Sun’s Limb
A solar prominence made up of gas and dust is seen hanging delicately above the limb of the sun. (Miguel Claro)
A massive solar prominence — a feature made of plasma, a hot gas that contains electrically charged helium and hydrogen — hangs above our sun. The image was highly commended in the category, Our Sun.
Miguel Claro captured this image from the Dark Sky Alqueva region in Portugal on Feb. 7, 2022. The prominence was visible for two days, and later threw a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. If Earth is in the path of a CME, we can get great displays of auroras, or northern (and southern) lights.
Miguel used a telescope with a special solar filter and captured the prominence on video.
The International Space Station Transiting Tranquility Base
The International Space Station crosses over the moon’s Sea of Tranquility. (Andrew McCarthy)
The International Space Station (ISS) is seen directly over the Apollo 11 landing site on the moon, in the Sea of Tranquility.
Andrew McCarthy, the winner in the People and Space category, was able to get the shot from Florence, Ariz. The entire transit of the ISS across the moon lasted only a few milliseconds and required a lot of planning to get the shot just right.
The image itself was just a 0.3 millisecond exposure.
The Eye of God
The Helix Nebula, also known as the ‘Eye of God’ is a beautiful remnant of a dying star. (Weitang Liang)
The winner in the Stars and Nebula category is Weitang Liang who photographed the Helix Nebula from the Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region of Chile on Aug. 8, 2021.
This nebula — often called the Eye of God — is a planetary nebula, which surprisingly has nothing to do with planets. It is a cloud of gas and dust that has been shed by a parent star as it nears the end of its life. It is believed that one day, our sun will also create a beautiful nebula such as this.
Liang collected 22.5 hours of data to produce this final image.
Badwater Milky Way
The Milky Way hangs over Death Valley National Park. (Abhijit Patil)
Abhijit Patil is the runner up in the Skyscapes category. He photographed the Milky Way stretched over the salt flats at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park in California.
Each winter new rainwater is brought to the flats, where a continuous freeze-thaw-evaporation process creates the hexagonal patterns seen in this photograph.
The image is a composite of a five-second exposure of the ground and a five-minute exposure of the sky.
Andromeda Galaxy, The Neighbour
This image of the Andromeda Galaxy, which can be seen with the naked eye in dark-sky locations, was taken by two 14 year-old boys in China. (Yang Hanwen, Zhou Zezhen)
Finally, the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year award was won by Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen, two 14-year-old boys from China. The pair collaborated to take an image of our nearest neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy on Feb. 21, 2021.
The galaxy is one of our closest and largest neighbours and is on a collision course with the Milky Way. But there’s no need to panic: it’s not expected to happen for another five billion years. It took a total exposure of 17 hours to capture this image.
For a full list of winners, visit theRoyal Museum Greenwich website. The photographs will also be on display at the National Maritime Museum in London beginning Sept. 17.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
