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)

In this picture taken Thursday, August 4, 2016, seal Tristan looks out of a basket while being released into the North Sea together with others at the beach of the island Juist, Germany. He is part of the first group of released seals of the seal breeding station Norddeich this year. (Photo by Carmen Jaspersen/DPA via AP Photo)

A visitor takes a picture of goldfish at the Art Aquarium exhibition in Tokyo Friday, August 12, 2016. The exhibition, featuring around 8,000 goldfish in tanks themed on Japan's Edo Period. (Photo by Koji Sasahara/AP Photo)

Convicted murderer Hector Alvarado Mazariegos, right, drops to the ground as he is hit by bullets of a Guatemala firing squad in the public cemetery at Mazatenango, June 28, 1975. His companion, Rocael Ortiz, met the same fate a few seconds later. Both were convicted of murder. (Photo by AP Photo/Anzueto)

A farmer seen harvesting his crops while Mount Sinabung spewing out volcanic ash on July 4, 2017 in North Sumatera, Indonesia. The increased volume of lava dome that reaches one million eight hundred cubic meters, said volcanologist, through radio communications, do not dampen the activities of the people around sinabung, such as farming, harvesting their crops, picking up objects that are still left behind, or just take a picture while walking around near mount Sinabung. (Photo by Sabirin Manurung/Pacific Press/Barcroft Images)

Government officials in protective suits carry a mock coffin as they walk around a busy intersection during a coronavirus awareness campaign to remind people of the risk of contracting COVID-19 and to always obey health protocols to curb the spread of the outbreak in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, August 28, 2020. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

A woman hangs red chillies to dry outside her house at Khokana village on the outskirts of Kathmandu on August 5, 2020. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

In this April 14, 2014 file photo, Hamamatou Harouna, 10, who lost the use of her legs to polio, crawls to the restroom on the grounds of the Catholic Church where she and hundreds of others found refuge after fleeing violence in her village, in Carnot, Central African Republic. Health authorities on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 are expected to declare the African continent free of the wild poliovirus after decades of effort, though cases of vaccine-derived polio are still sparking outbreaks of the paralyzing disease in more than a dozen countries. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo/File)