Taliban security forces ride horses along the Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul on May 11, 2023. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

Armed forces veteran Frank Simpson at the Portico library being camouflaged by body artist Carolyn Roper in Manchester, UK on May 16, 2016 as part of the #CountThemIn campaign launched on Monday by the Royal British Legion. (Photo by Jon Super/Royal British Legion/PA Wire)

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 man rides a horse through a bonfire on January 16, 2009 in the small village of San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain. In honor of San Anton, the patron saint of animals, horses are riden trough the bonfires on the night before the official day of honoring animals in Spain. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

A gaucho is unseated by an untamed horse during the Creole week celebrations in Montevideo, Uruguay on March 26, 2018. (Photo by Andres Stapff/Reuters)

A man rides a horse while others swim on the beach of Gaza City, Friday, August 3, 2018. (Photo by Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)

Icelandic horses graze on a meadow at a stud farm in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, September 1, 2025. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Competitors practice their moves before taking part in the UK Hobby Horse championship at Bury Farm Equestrian Centre on September 08, 2024 in Slapton, United Kingdom. While hobby horsing as a form of play has been around for centuries, the modern-day interpretation of the sport originated in Finland.(Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)