If you live in a place with light pollution, you may have a hard time seeing the glow of the night sky. Sometimes, in the midst of a busy life, we even forget to look up and admire this unique landscape. These photographs are the winners of the 2021 Astrophotography Contest organised by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, and the photographers have used considerable skill to show the wonders of our local universe in gorgeous detail. With over 4500 entries, the following are the winners of each category.
These rare photographs show us a dazzling cosmic landscape and tell the mystery of the local universe.
Suns (Overall Champion)
Above: An annular solar eclipse filmed in June 2021 won the grand prize.
This photo of the sun that won the race is basically a picture of the moon. On June 21, 2020, during an annular eclipse, photographers captured the appearance of lunar invaders right in front of the sun, turning our star into an ethereal golden ring.
The photographer took the photo in the high-altitude, small-populated Ali region of Tibet. The weather there is usually sunny all year round, except for the day the photo was taken, when the weather was cloudy. According to the royal Observatory of Greenwich, the eclipse was less than a minute away before the clouds cleared, and photographers captured this rare opportunity.
aurora
Above: The Aurora Borealis seen on a ship off the coast of Russia.
Photographer on a boat approaching the Kara Strait on November 30, 2020. The Kara Strait is a shipping route connecting the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea in northern Russia. In the distance, the photographer saw a white band in the sky and went to get his camera. When he returned a few minutes later, the sky was filled with a meandering green light: the Northern Lights.
Auroras occur when the solar wind collides with Earth's atmosphere, excites molecules and releases color. Different gases in the atmosphere emit different types of visible light, and oxygen emits the iconic green light associated with the aurora.
galaxy
Above: A fairly unconventional, ring-shaped photographic work of the Milky Way won an award in the Galaxy category.
This curvy picture of the Milky Way is a panorama of our Galaxy and took two years to complete. It won the Digital Galaxy category in the competition. The photograph shows all parts of the Milky Way that can be seen from Earth and combines images taken in China (Sichuan and Qinghai) and New Zealand (Lake Pukaki) to capture elements of the Milky Way that can only be seen in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively.
The entire galaxy forms a ring that echoes the overall image of an annular eclipse. At the top of this ring is the convex part of the galaxy, which is the concentration of the cosmic structure at the center of the galaxy. This raised cross-section can be seen from Earth (obviously, we are in the Milky Way). Jupiter is also visible, above the bulge, to the left of the red giant's heart. In addition to the raised parts, the Orion and Magellan Nebula can be seen in the lower part of the image. Seeing our galaxies ring-shaped distorts our typical view of the night sky, changing from the picture before our eyes to a more comprehensive view of our habitation in the universe. If the solar system is our street, then the Milky Way is our entire city.
Moon
Above: A surreal view of Venus on the moon's horizon.
The image is reminiscent of the iconic Earth rising, but it's a replica of that one: Not earth rising above astronauts on the moon, but Venus rising behind the moon. This was taken by a photographer on Earth in June 2020. Since the moon's shadow obscures most of Venus, Venus appears as an extremely thin crescent moon. Taken in France's Fordges-Les-Bains, this photograph is a far cry from the familiar lunar surface.
Speaking at a press conference at the Royal Observatory In Greenwich, the competition judges said, "This is the solar system through the eyes of space travelers." In one image, we can see the cosmic distance and celestial bodies from a new perspective. Indeed, this kind of photograph will make your mind think of where the photographer is? What exactly is captured in the photo?
People and space
Above: Silhouette of a photographer's child at night during the pandemic.
Sorry to disturb your wonderful holiday in the universe, but the title of this photo is "Confinement", which was taken in Windsor, UK, in January 2021. In the photo, the photographer's daughter is holding her plush toy and looking at the stars. The stars outside look a lot like what many people see as the epidemic of winter: an anxious, monotonous blur.
This photograph reminds the viewer of what a vast space is outside of our world. This is during covid-19 and there is nowhere to go. The window frames in the work are like prison fences, and they remind many of us of the reality of confinement. However, photographers also capture the curiosity and hope for the future very well – the information we really need, even after COVID.
Planets, comets and asteroids
Above: Meteors streak across the sky.
This is the most puzzling work of all photographs: a brightly colored quadrant meteor (A Colurful Quadrantid Meteor). The photo was taken in January 2021 at Cook Station in Missouri, where photographers captured a meteor from the now-obsolete sign quadrant constellation. The photographer had wanted to photograph more distant objects that night, such as galaxies, but when the shooting was complete, a meteor appeared.
The photo was a bit of an accident because the photographer wanted to zoom in on the meteor, but there wasn't. The final composition is the stripe of a fireball across the sky, exposed for a full minute. Because this image captures the path of a meteor rather than the object itself, it looks like someone holding a pair of space-time scissors and cutting a thin, colorful line that may have a new dimension.
Skyscape
Above: The moon is on the dunes of Death Valley National Park.
This picture is crazy because the moon is within our reach, and the place where the photo was taken is not too much like Earth. The photographer was in Death Valley National Park at the time, but as the moon rose from the dunes, the atmosphere here was more like the planet Tatooine. The dunes are projected in an ethereal light — perhaps because this photo is actually four different photos, each with a different exposure setting.
Stars and nebulae
Above: The California Nebula is a space rainbow.
The photo, titled "California Dream NGC 1499," captures the California Nebula, a 100-light-year cloud of dust and gas about 1,000 light-years from Earth. This photo was taken on 7 nights in 2021. This is not a true color image — some gases are mapped to specific colors (hydrogen turns green, one sulfur turns red, and double-ionized oxygen turns blue).
An astrophysicist at the Royal Observatory Greenwich said: "Although nebulae are often known for similar to the colorful clouds in space, this photographer has successfully used rainbows to tease out different gases in the California Nebula. The composition of this photo looks almost like a splash of paint against a starlit background! All stars in the nebula are removed from the image and digitally replaced in post-processing with stars in the red, green, and blue wavelength data. The composite image is a starlight of color in space.
Youth competition
Above: A "family portrait" of our solar system.
The photographer is the winner of this year's youth competition, and his family portrait is the solar system (excluding earth). From left to right: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus. Apparently, Pluto does not exist because it is a dwarf planet. The seven planets are on the left by the edge of the Sun and on the right are the edges of the Moon (which is magnified to match the Sun). The photos were taken between August 2020 and January 2021 in Yongtai, China.
Best Newcomer
Above: The Falcon 9 rocket flew over the moon in February 2021.
The photographer, who won the Best Newcomer Award, photographed the Falcon 9. A few hours before the spacecraft's launch, he used a program to calculate the rocket's orbit and its precise position in the sky where it intersected the moon. Near the Florida launch site, he took this photo.
The most recent launch of Falcon 9 was all civilians, part of the Inspiration 4 mission. The photographer photographed the flight in February 2021.
Winner of image innovation
Above: The work, Titled Celestial Fracture, depicts many of Saturn's different fragments of fragmentation.
There are two winners of the Image Innovation Award, both of whom use creative techniques in their work. One of them is The Celestial Fracture, a collection of images of Saturn, its moons, and Saturn's rings. All of the photos were taken by the Cassini spacecraft between 2004 and 2007. Taken together, the images are a peculiar combination of straight lines (mostly from Saturn's rings) and curves (spherical shapes from planets). They are all black and white, allowing the audience to focus on the geometry of the planet without being distracted by its color.
The competition judges said: "This is a wonderful dance between science and art. We associate Saturn with its eternal aura, but the quasi-Cubist treatment, and its clumsy angle, provides a refreshing perspective that truly captures the imagination of the judges. ”
Above: A dazzling panorama of Jupiter's belt.
Another winner is Another Cloudy Day on Jupiter. The name of the photo says it all very well: a close-up of our favorite set of gas giants, a slurry of orange, rust, and off-white spirals. The photo was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on several different channels and color-edited.
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