Astro Photographer of the Year winners
AMERICAN photographer Brad Goldpaint has taken home the main prize in this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year, defeating thousands of professional and amateur photographers from across the world to win the accolade.
He secures £10,000, as well as takes pride of place in the exhibition of winning photographs, which is now open at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.
Shot in Moab, Utah, USA, the photograph (above) shows immense red rock formations, with the Milky Way looming ahead 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.’
Winning images of the other categories and special prizes include the breathtaking aurora borealis (Northern Lights) above a fjord in the Lofoten archipelago in northern Norway, which was captured by Mikkel Beiter from Denmark.
Britain’s Martin Lewis took both first place and the runner- up prize in the Planets, Comets and Asteroids category for his images ‘ The Grace of Venus’ (right) and ‘Parade of the Planets’, respectively. His images were taken from his back garden in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
Also from the UK, Damian Peach was awarded the Special Prize: Robotic Scope award for his image (left) showcasing a very rare conjunction of two bright comets passing the Pleiades star cluster. To take the shot, Peach used a remote telescope located in Mayhill, New Mexico.
All the winners from this year – as well as selected shots from previous years – can be seen at the ‘Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year, 10 years of the world’s best space photography’ exhibition until 5 May 2019. For more details, see rmg.co.uk/astrophoto.