Gorgeous galaxies and stunning stars make up this selection of pictures from the shortlisted entries for this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. The winners will be announced on 15 September, and an exhibition of the winning images will be will be displayed in a free exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Centre from 17 September. Here: “Seven Magic Points”. The rusty red swirls of the circular, iron sculpture Seven Magic Points in Brattebergan, Norway mirror the rippling aurora above. (Photo by Rune Engebø/Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016/National Maritime Museum)

Racegoers pose for a photo during the Coral Scottish Grand National Ladies Day at Ayr Racecourse, Ayr, United Kingdom on Friday, April 1, 2022. (Photo by Steve Welsh/PA Images via Getty Images)

A woman holds a picture as people pray during a funeral, following a mass shooting at a day care centre, at Wat Rat Samakee, in the town of Uthai Sawan, in the province of Nong Bua Lam Phu, Thailand on October 9, 2022. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Visitors take pictures inside Kuala Lumpur Tower's “Sky Box”, one of the city's touristic attractions, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 05 January 2024. Malaysian Tourism Minister Tiong King Sing recently said that the tourism industry “is not just an engine for economic growth but also a bridge for cultural exchange and international friendship”. (Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA/EFE)

A man carrying buckets walks along a beach littered with piles of debris and plastic waste at the Kedonganan beach in Bali, Indonesia, 19 March 2024. Most of the trash ends up in the sea every rainy season due to the island's lack of a centralized waste management system. (Photo by Made Nagi/EPA/EFE)

A member of the “Exit Point” amateur rope-jumping group jumps from a 44-metre high (144-feet high) waterpipe bridge in the Siberian Taiga area outside Krasnoyarsk, September 28, 2014. Fans of rope-jumping, a kind of extreme sport involving a jump from a high point using an advanced system of amortization including mountaineering and rope safety equipment, attended the Golden Autumn group's jumping season. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Revelers throw colored corn starch into the air as they celebrate the 2015 Holi (Festival of Colors) at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah on Saturday, March 28, 2015. (Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

Villagers offer flowers to a wild tusker, laying dead in a field in Panbari villagein Panbari village on the outskirts of Gauhati, India, Thursday, November 2, 2017. According to a veterinarian the tusker died of food poisoning. Scarcity of food and illegal encroachment of forest areas have forced these wild elephant to move to populated areas for food. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)