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All the winning images from the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards

The winning snaps are now on display at the National Maritime Museum 

By Dianne Apen-Sadler

The Royal Observatory Greenwich has just announced the winner of its ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. 

Captured using a long focal-length telescope, The Andromeda Core by photographers Weitang Liang, Qi Yang and Chuhong Yu showcases the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) in detail.

László Francsics, judge and astrophotographer said, “Not to show it all − this is one of the greatest virtues of this photo. The Andromeda Galaxy has been photographed in so many different ways and so many times with telescopes that it is hard to imagine a new photo would ever add to what we’ve already seen. But this does just that, an unusual dynamic composition with unprecedented detail that doesn’t obscure the overall scene.”

This year the competition saw more than 5,500 entries from 69 countries across the globe, with a mix of amateur and professional photographers taking part.

Categories include skyscapes, aurorae, people and space, our sun, our moon, planets, comets and asteroids, stars and nebulae, and galaxies – and you can see all the winners below.

Plus, the winning images are now on display at an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum.

Overall winner: The Andromeda Core © Weitang Liang, Qi Yang, Chuhong Yu

Location: AstroCamp Observatory, Nerpio, Spain, 31 July, 2, 4–6, 14, 17, 20, 29, 31 August and 1 September 2024. Taken with a PlaneWave Instruments CDK20 telescope, Baader LRGB and Chroma H-alpha filters, PlaneWave Instruments L500 mount, Moravian Instruments C3-61000 Pro camera, 3,450 mm focal length, 500 mm f/6.8, multiple 900-second R, G and B exposures, multiple 1,800-second H-alpha exposures, 38 hours total exposure

Aurorae winner: Crown of Light © Kavan Chay 
Location: Tumbledown Bay, Little River, Banks Peninsula Community, New Zealand. Taken with a Nikon Z 7 astro-modified camera, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Pro 2i mount, Nikkor Z 14-24 mm f/2.8S, 16 mm, Sky: f/2.8, ISO 800, 5-second exposure; Foreground: f/5.6, ISO 3,200, 30-second exposure
Our moon winner: The Trace of Refraction © Marcella Giulia Pace. This image captures the phenomenon of atmospheric refraction, where moonlight passes through dense layers of Earth’s atmosphere near the horizon, bending in a manner similar to light rays through a prism
Location: Contrada Sant’Ippolito, Modica, Sicily, Italy. Taken with a Nikon D7100 camera, 600 mm f/6.3, ISO 100, 1-second exposure
Our Sun winner: Active Region of the Sun’s Chromosphere © James Sinclair 
Location: Cedar City, Utah, USA. Taken with a Lunt 130 mm telescope with double-stacked Etalons, Lunt Block Filter 3400 (34 mm), Sky-Watcher EQ6 R Pro mount, Player One Astronomy Apollo-M Max camera, 910 mm f/28, Gain 310, 10-second exposure
People & Space winner: ISS Lunar Flyby © Tom Williams
Location: ISS Lunar Flyby © Tom Williams. Taken with a Sky-Watcher 400P GoTo Dobsonian telescope, Player Astronomy Uranus-C (IMX585) camera, 300 mm f/15.5, 1.5-millisecond exposure
Planets, Comets & Asteroids winner: Comet 12P/Pons−Brooks Taking a Final Bow © Dan Bartlett
Location: June Lake, California, USA. Taken with a Celestron C14Edge HD SCT telescope with HyperStar V4 lens, 10Micron GM 2000 HPS mount, ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera, 712 mm f/2, 25 x 30-second exposures
Skyscapes winner: The Ridge © Tom Rae 
Location: Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, Mackenzie District, New Zealand. Taken with a Nikon Z 6a and Z 7 cameras, iOptron SkyGuider Pro mount, Sky: Nikon Z 6a camera, 40 mm f/1.8, ISO 1,600, 49 x 30-second exposures; Foreground: Nikon Z 7 camera, 24 mm f/10, ISO 125, 13 x 20-second exposures

Stars & Nebulae winner: M13: An Ultra-Deep Exposure of the Popular Cluster © Distant Luminosity (Julian Zoller, Jan Beckmann, Lukas Eisert, Wolfgang Hummel)

Location: Pena Trevinca, Veiga, Gijón Municipality, Asturias, Spain. Taken with a TS-Optics 200 mm/8 ONTC f/4 Newtonian telescope, iOptron CEM70G mount, ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera, 800 mm f/4, 300-second exposures, 29.25 hours total exposure

The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer: Encounter Across Light Years © Yurui Gong, Xizhen Ruan 

Location: Zhucheng City, Shandong, China. Taken with a Nikon Z 30 camera, 56 mm f/1.7, ISO 800, multiple 30-second exposures

ZWO Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Orion, the Horsehead and the Flame in H-alpha © Daniele Borsari

Location: Leffe, Bergamo, Italy. Taken with a Player One Astronomy Ares-M Pro camera, Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro mount, Samyang 135 mm f/2.0 lens, 135 mm f/2.8, 45 x 60-second exposures and 262 x 300-second exposures, 22 hours and 35 minutes total exposure