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 aerial file photo taken on Tuesday, October 31, 2017, a woman walks past a statue of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. The thousands of statues of Vladimir Lenin spread across the vast region bring to mind poet Vladimir Mayakovsky's ringing line of devotion: “Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live”. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A girl swings on a rope swing over the Volga River in Zavolzhsk, Ivanovo Region, Russia on June 9, 2020. (Photo by Vladimir Smirnov/TASS)

A woman poses with a cut-out of Vladimir Putin in the “President Cafe” in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia, April 7, 2016. Dozens of photos of Vladimir Putin, from childhood to Russian President, hang on the walls of President Cafe in a working-class area of Krasnoyarsk, a city in eastern Siberia. A life-size cut-out of Putin stands by the bar. Images of U.S. President Barack Obama, as well as leaders of Germany and Britain, greet customers in the toilets. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

This fascinating photo series looks at the bleak isolation of Chernobyl as never before. Employing infrared filters, photographer Vladimir Mitgutin is able to bring out details of decay – an abandoned bus, a radar system, an amusement park, a doll, a sports hall, a piano – frozen in time. Here: Simon – a friendly fox, who often approaches tourists in the exclusion zone, asking for food. (Photo by Vladimir Mitgutin/Caters News Agency)

A wolf skin is on display for sale next to a painting of Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Lenin, at Izmailovo flea market in Moscow on December 3, 2017. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

Aeroflot employees with a puppy at the canine service of Aeroflot at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow Region, Russia on October 2, 2020, that has started to train service dogs to detect COVID-19 in people. (Photo by Vladimir Gerdo/TASS)

Belarusian ornithologist Vladimir Ivanovski, 72, stands on a tree as he builds an artificial nest for birds of prey from tree branches, in a marsh near the village of Kazyany, Belarus on October 20, 2019. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)