An infrared portrait from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope which shows generations of stars is seen in this undated NASA handout image released February 14, 2013. In this wispy star-forming region, called W5, the oldest stars can be seen as blue dots in the centers of the two hollow cavities (other blue dots are background and foreground stars not associated with the region). Red shows heated dust that pervades the region's cavities, while green highlights dense clouds. (Photo by NASA/Reuters/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian/Handout)
A participant in costume poses to a camera after a Halloween parade in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, Japan October 30, 2016. More than 130,000 spectators turned up to watch the parade, where about 2,600 participants dressed up in costumes, according to the organiser. ((Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)
Peng Jing, 24, attends her wedding photography shoot after the lockdown was lifted in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province and China's epicentre of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, April 15, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)
The northern lights, or aurora borealis, appear in the sky over the Bamburgh lighthouse at Stag Rock in Northumberland, England on September 28, 2016. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire via ZUMA Press)
Katelin Wie Qi Heng of Team Singapore competes with ball during the Team Final and Individual Qualification on day seven of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games at Arena Birmingham on August 04, 2022 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
A woman clutches a teddy bear covered in red paint to symbolize blood during a government-approved, anti-violence rally held in the Kazakh city of Almaty on November 26, 2023. Organized by the New People youth movement, roughly 300 people took part. The rally was dubbed “Say No To The Animal World”, with organizers likening violent people to animals. (Photo by Petr Trotsenko/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
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.