STARS IN THEIR SKIES

American photographer Brad Goldpaint has beaten thousands of amateur and professional photographers to win the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s title of Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018.

As well as winning a £10,000 ($19,489) top prize, his image takes pride of place in an exhibition of winning photographs at the UK’s National Maritime Museum.

Goldpaint’s image was taken in Moab, Utah, and depicts a composition of immense red rock formations with the Milky Way looming overhead on the right, and the Andromeda galaxy on the left.

Competition judge Will Gater said: “For me this superb image is emblematic of everything it means to be an astrophotographer; the balance between light and dark, the contrasting textures and tones of land and sky and the photographer alone under a starry canopy of breathtaking scale and beauty.”

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

The competition received more than 4200 entries from more than 91 countries.

Transport the Soul by Brad Goldpaint. The overall winner added a human element. Once the quarter moon rose, the photographer, to the left, stood as he captured this scene. The Andromeda Galaxy, quarter moon and Milky Way were depicted.

Mysterious Galaxy by Australian Steven Mohr. The spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is around 26 million light years away in the constellation Leo and was captured using around 20.5 hours of exposure time.

Earth Shine by Peter Ward of Australia. During a total solar eclipse the brightness of the solar corona hides details of the moon to the eye. But by layering multiple digital exposures, the photographer reveals more.

Castlerigg Stone Circle by Matthew James Turner. This was Turner’s first encounter with the aurora borealis in Keswick, Cumbria. The moon illuminated the foreground of standing stones and the aurora surfaced from behind the mountains.