The Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy and the Running Man nebula feature in the shortlist for the Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. The winners will be announced on 23 October, and an exhibition of the winning images from the past 10 years of the contest will be on show at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich from 24 October.

Check them out for more information and start to see our world through photos!

Cable Bay

Mark Gee (Australia). The magnificent Milky Way stretches across the night sky reflecting on Cable Bay near Nelson, New Zealand. The photographer had to take the picture before the light washed out the sky. 42 individual images were stitched in to a large multi row panorama to create this image.

Photograph: Mark Gee/National Maritime Museum

ISS sunspots

Dani Caxete (Spain). The International Space Station (ISS) was captured between two massive sunspots, the AR 12674 and AR 12673, during its solar transit. The image was taken in Madrid and it took the ISS less than a second to cross the solar disk.

Photograph: Dani Caxete/National Maritime Museum

Empyreal

Paul Wilson (USA). A flared up Aurora reflects bright pink and yellow colours on the water at Southern Bays near Christchurch, New Zealand. The incredible combination of the radiant Aurora colours, the wide green fields and the dark blue, starry night sky paint a spectacular picture and accentuates the wonders of our galaxy.

Photograph: Paul Wilson/National Maritime Museum

A Magnificent Saturn

Avani Soares (Brazil). In high resolution planetary photography having a good view of a planet is a key factor but also completely out of a photographer’s control. In this image the photographer was lucky to capture our second largest planet, Saturn, in all its glory. After stacking 4,000 out of 10,000 frames we can admire details such as the beautiful polar hexagon, the Encke Division and even the crepe ring.

Photograph: Avani Soares/National Maritime Museum

Guarding the galaxy

Jez Hughes (UK). The Milky Way rises over some of the oldest trees on Earth: the ancient bristlecone pine forest, at the Inyo National Forest, in the White Mountains, California. Growing at altitudes of over 10,000 feet, these trees can live for over 4,000 years. The high elevation also results in thin air and incredibly dark skies on display. This photograph was taken in between rolling thunderstorms which were passing through the Eastern Sierras, leaving time for only a few exposures.

Photograph: Jez Hughes/National Maritime Museum

Andromeda galaxy

Péter Feltóti (Hungary). Andromeda Galaxy has always amazed the photographer. The dust lanes and bright star clusters in its arms, the emblematic galaxy shape of it, and the magnificent look of this great star city make it one of his most desired objects to photograph. This image was taken using a 200mm mirror and creating a three panel mosaic.

Photograph: Péter Feltóti/National Maritime Museum

Cave Man

Brandon Yoshizawa (USA). Battling the light pollution in Malibu, California, the photographer brilliantly framed our galaxy, the Milky Way, inside a sea cave, 25 miles away from the heart of downtown Los Angeles. The image required two exposures; one to capture the details of the dark cave and one for the Milky Way. Both exposures were taken back to back without moving the camera or changing the composition.

Photograph: Brandon Yoshizawa/National Maritime Museum

AR 2665 and Quiescent Prominence

Łukasz Sujka (Poland). The sunspot AR2665 was one of the most active regions in 2017 on the right you can see a phenomenal quiescent prominence extending from our star, the Sun. This type of prominence lasts for a very long time and its structure is quite stable. The photo is a composition of two images: one of the magnificent prominence and one of the Sun’s surface. The surface is much brighter than the prominence so it is a negative to reveal details of Sun chromosphere (spicules and filaments).

Photograph: Łukasz Sujka/National Maritime Museum

Guardian of Tre Cime

Carlos F. Turienzo (Spain). This panoramic image, composed out of eight photos, depicts the Milky Way emerging over the rocky Dolomites in Tre Cime on the left, and on the right the lights from a house illuminating the beautiful terrain.

Photograph: Carlos F Turienzo/National Maritime Museum