“Cyber Monsoon”, honorable mention in Places category. A torrential monsoon rain in Bhaktapur, Nepal. (© Anuar Patjane)

“Panopticons is an arts and regeneration project of the East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network managed by Mid Pennine Arts. It involved the construction of series of 21st-century landmarks, or Panopticons (structures providing a comprehensive view), across East Lancashire, England, as symbols of the renaissance of the area”. – Wikipedia

Photo: “Singing Ringing Tree. The Singing Ringing Tree is a musical sculpture overlooking Burnley. It was designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu of Tonkin Liu and constructed from pipes of galvanised steel”. (Photos by WandereringSoul/Mark Tighe)

A close up of a Khon mask July 8, 2011 in Angthong, Thailand. The paper mache Khon masks, are part of the ornate glittering costumes used in the stylized classical Thai dance form known as Khon. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

A pro-Russian supporter with the Russian national flag on her shoulders takes part in a meeting in Simferopol, March 6, 2014. Crimea's parliament voted to join Russia on Thursday and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum within 10 days on the decision in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Take me away, deer, Russia. The Nenet people of Arctic Russia use reindeer and sledges as a prime mode of transport. The animals’ navigational ability means that in severe conditions they are sometimes the only hope of survival. (Photo by Kamil Nureev/Smithsonian Photo Contest)

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.

A student of the Orchestra of Recycled Instruments of Cateura holds an instrument made from recycled material by craftsman Nicolas Gomez, in Cateura, near Asuncion, May 9, 2013. The orchestra is the brainchild of its conductor Favio Chavez, who wanted to help the children of garbage pickers at the local landfill, and the instruments are made from salvaged materials by craftsman Gomez. The orchestra now involves 30 schoolchildren who have toured countries in Latin America, North America and Europe to play music ranging from Beethoven and Mozart to the Beatles and Paraguayan folk songs. (Photo by Jorge Adorno/Reuters)

Plants grow on houses in the abandoned fishing village of Houtouwan on the island of Shengshan July 26, 2015. Just a handful of people still live in a village on Shengshan Island east of Shanghai that was once home to more than 2,000 fishermen. Every day hundreds of tourists visit Houtouwan, making their way on narrow footpaths past tumbledown houses overtaken by vegetation. The remote village, on one of more than 400 islands in the Shengsi archipelago, was abandoned in the early 1990s as first wealthy residents then others moved away, aiming to leave problems with education and food delivery behind them. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)