Under the cover of heaven: the best astronomical photos from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 contest

Most recently, the jury of the "Astronomical Photographer of the Year" photo contest ("Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year"), which is held by the Royal Greenwich Observatory, named the winner and prize-winners.

This year, the Grand Prix of the competition and the winner in the category "People and Space" was Brad Goldpaint from the USA, who won 10 thousand pounds for his absolutely exciting picture called "Soul Transport".

The photo really turned out great: an extraordinary frame combines the red rocks of Moab, Utah, USA, with the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy on the right and left. In the center of the composition, the moon illuminates the sky, while a lonely photographer takes pictures in the distance.

And the "Young astrophotographer of the Year" was a 15-year-old Italian Fabian Dalpais (Fabian Dalpiaz) with the photo "Great Autumn Morning".

In the category "Our Sun", the winner was Frenchman Nicolas Lefaudeux with a picture of "The Sun King, the little king and the god of War".

The special prize of Sir Patrick Moore was won by the Chinese Tianhong Li with the picture "Galactic Encore".

In the category "Comets, planets and asteroids" the winner was Martin Lewis (Martin Lewis) from the UK with the photo "Grace of Venus".

The special prize "Robotic Scope" was won by the Briton Damian Peach with the photo "Two comets with Pleiades".

The author of the photo even wondered: "Will comet ER61 be able to catch up with its green counterpart?".

In the category "Stars and nebulae" — Italian Mario Cogo with the photo "Dust complex of the Southern Crown".

In the category "Aurora" — again Frenchman Nicolas Lefaudeux (Nicolas Lefaudeux) with a picture of "Acceleration on Aurora Lane".

In the category "Our Moon", the Spaniard Jordi Delpeix Borrell won with the photo "Inverted colors of the border between the Sea of Clarity and the Sea of Tranquility".

In the "Galaxies" category, the first place was taken by Steven Mohr from Australia with "NGC 3521, a mysterious galaxy".

In the category "Celestial landscapes" — Ferenc Szémár (Ferenc Szémár) from Hungary with his "Non-Rising Star".