Doctor Dvora Ancona wears a glove bearing writings against violence on women as she arrives to attend La Scala opera house's gala season opener, Giuseppe Verdi's opera “Don Carlo” at the Milan La Scala theater, Italy, Thursday December 7, 2023. The season-opener Thursday, held each year on the Milan feast day St. Ambrose, is considered one of the highlights of the European cultural calendar. (Photo by Luca Bruno/AP Photo)

Masks based on real people's faces are diplayed at the Shuhei Okawara's mask shop in Tokyo, Japan on December 16, 2020. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice holds up his dog Babydog's rear end as a message to people who've doubted the state as he comes to the end of his State of the State speech in the House chambers, Thursday, January 27, 2022, in Charleston, W.Va. (Photo by Chris Dorst/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP Photo)

An Asian elephant called “Plai Deaw” goes for a walk on a mountain road in Nakhon Nayok, Thailand on July 11, 2022. The bull has become well known in the area for his taste for venturing out from the deep forest and emerging among cars and village homes. Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild but there is often conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages. A similar number of elephants are kept captive where they work in zoos and are hired out for religious festivals and weddings. (Photo by Mongkol Pitakmoo/ViralPress)

Jeepneys are seen as an enforcer manages traffic at a busy street in Manila on May 30, 2017. Jeepneys, once hailed as the “King of the Road” and a cultural symbol in the Phillipines to rival New York's yellow taxis, may soon disappear from Manila's gridlocked streets, as authorities move to phase out the Philippines' iconic World War II-era minibuses, citing pollution and safety concerns. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

A devotee of the Jor Soo Gong Naka shrine with skewers pierced through her cheeks takes part in a procession during the annual Vegetarian Festival in Phuket on September 27, 2022. The festival, back after two years of hiatus because of the Covid-19 pandemic, features religious devotees who slash themselves with swords, pierce their cheeks with sharp objects and commit other painful acts to purify themselves, taking on the sins of the community. (Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP Photo)

A woman wearing a face mask rides a bicycle with a child, following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China on February 8, 2021. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

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.