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.

“Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puʻuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Women fire fighters directing a hose after the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour (Pearl Harbor). (Photo by Three Lions)

Ernie Lotinga, looking terrified as a gun is pointed in his face, in a scene from the play “My Wife's Family”, at the Garrick Theatre, London. (Photo by Sasha/Getty Images). 24th February 1941

Workers demonstrate outside the factory of Hua Yang Printing Holdings Co Ltd on October 30, 2007 in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province, China. Over 1,000 workers of the company have blocked the 107 State Highway where the firm is located, to protest against their employer, who owed half a month's salary to the workers. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Aviator Frantisek Hadrava moves Vampira, an ultralight plane based on the U.S.-design of light planes called Mini-Max, out of a garage in the village of Zdikov, Czech Republic, August 23, 2016. Frantisek thought driving to work for 14 minutes was too much, so he built an plane to cut the commute by half. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

Debris fly into the air as foreign fishing boats are blown up by Indonesian Navy off Batam Island, Indonesia, Monday, February 22, 2016. Authorities on Monday sank dozens of fishing boats caught operating illegally in Indonesian waters as part of the country's campaign to battle illegal fishing. (Photo by M. Urip/AP Photo)

Revellers celebrate "Ash Monday" by participating in a colourful "flour war", a traditional festivity marking the end of the carnival season and the start of the 40-day Lent period until the Orthodox Easter,in the port town of Galaxidi, some 215 km (134 miles) north west of Athens, March 18, 2013. The revellers "fight" by throwing coloured flour, charcoal dust and powder painting until they essentially run out of supplies. (Photo by Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

“The Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft. It was developed as a black project from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in the 1960s by the Lockheed Skunk Works. Clarence “Kelly” Johnson was responsible for many of the design's innovative concepts. During reconnaissance missions the SR-71 operated at high speeds and altitudes to allow it to outrace threats. If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outrun the missile”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A U.S. Air Force SR-71A, also known as the “Blackbird”, is put through it's paces during a test flight over Beale Air Force Base in California. The aircraft is a strategic reconnaissance plane by Lockheed and is the world's fastest and highest flying operational aircraft. (Photo by Getty Images)