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)

Employees of the Park Royal resort wait for a shuttle to take them to work early in the morning on April 2, 2015 in Acapulco, Mexico. Despite problems with cartel violence Semana Santa is one of the biggest tourist weeks of the year in Acapulco, a city whose entire economy depends on tourism, and officials expect around 350,000 mostly Mexican visitors this week. (Photo by Jonathan Levinson/The Washington Post)

A male red deer with antlers covered in bracken, walks through undergrowth in Richmond Park in south west London, October 3, 2014. Over 600 red and fallow deer roam in the largest of London's Royal Parks, and have their numbers managed in an annual cull each November and February. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

Principal of the Royal Ballet, Natalia Osipova, performs outside the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Edinburgh, England on November 21, 2018, where she is starring in the new contemporary ballet “The Mother”. (PHoto by Jane Barlow/PA Wire via ZUMA Press)

Indian Hindu sadhus (holy men) from the Juna Akhara take part in a religious procession towards Sangam area, during the first “royal entry” for the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad on December 25, 2018. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

The Duchess of Cambridge comes down a slide during a visit to the LEGO Foundation PlayLab at the Carlsberg Campus, University College Copenhagen, Denmark, on day one of a two-day working visit with The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood on Tuesday, February 22, 2022. (Photo by John Sibley/PA Wire Press Association)

A pack of wild smooth-coated otters, nicknamed the “Zouk family”, crosses Penang Road in Singapore on March 3, 2021, the World Wildlife Day. The “Zouks”, a well-known otter family in Singapore, started out from the Istana on Wednesday, and made a “royal” tour of various landmarks in Singapore. (Photo by Chine Nouvelle/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Rummaging in a bin for scraps, this fox in Barnet, north London, England found itself trapped in the lid on May 23, 2019. Luckily the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were able to free it. (Photo by RSPCA/PA Wire Press Association)