A young macaque perches on a pole, observing nearby tourists while eating some seeds in Jigokudani Yaen-koen wild macaque monkey park on February 16, 2015 in Yamanouchi, Nagano, Japan. (Photo by Manuel Romaris/Getty Images)

A United States Secret Service agent fights with the wind as Marine One with United States President Joe Biden on board departs from the White House in Washington to Ottawa, Canada on March 23, 2023. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A person stands next to the skyline of lower Manhattan on the opening day the Edge NYC, an outdoor observation deck on the 100th floor of 30 Hudson Yards on March 11, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

In this April 14, 2014 file photo, Hamamatou Harouna, 10, who lost the use of her legs to polio, crawls to the restroom on the grounds of the Catholic Church where she and hundreds of others found refuge after fleeing violence in her village, in Carnot, Central African Republic. Health authorities on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 are expected to declare the African continent free of the wild poliovirus after decades of effort, though cases of vaccine-derived polio are still sparking outbreaks of the paralyzing disease in more than a dozen countries. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo/File)

A coil-shaped Helix Nebula showing a fine web of filamentary “bicycle-spoke” features embedded in the colorful red and blue ring of gas. At 650 light-years away, the Helix is one of the nearest planetary nebulae to Earth. A planetary nebula is the glowing gas around a dying, Sun-like star. (Photo by Reuters/NASA)

The Royal Observatory just announced its Astronomy Photographer Of The Year 2013 winners. Australian photographer Mark Gee was chosen among a thousand amateur and professional photographers around the globe to win the top title. His work is part of an exhibition of the winning photographers, which opened on Sept. 19 at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. The Royal Observatory shared with us the winners and notable mentions of the competition. Their descriptions of the prizewinners can be found below the images.

“Lofoten Glow”. I was desperately searching a good sunrise spot this particular morning. Normally Storvatnet Lake is completely covered in snow, so you can only imagine my surprise when I saw these crazy ice formations almost being shot out of the frozen lake. I put my crampons on and took a big risk walking out. I could hear the ice cracking underneath my feet, and when you’re all alone in a fjord/canyon like this – the cracks are echoed and sound really frightening. Was it worth it? I sure think so! Photo location: Storvatnet, Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway. (Photo and caption by Stian Klo/National Geographic Photo Contest)

South Korean girl group KARA arrive during the 21st High1 Seoul Music Awards at Olympic gymnasium on January 19, 2012 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)