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)

The picture dated January 30, 2025 shows the Red Arrows swooping through the skies as they carry out a winter training session over RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. The team made the most of the sunny weather to practice their signature moves, with plenty of twists and turns in the blue skies. They train in the UK until mid-Spring when they move overseas to a location with more predictable, settled weather to maximise flying hours. (Photo by Caroline Haycock/Bav Media)

In this photo provided by Sugar Bowl Resort, snow covers the door of the marketing office at the Sugar Bowl Resort in Norden, Calif., on Monday, March 4, 2024. A powerful blizzard dumped more than 10 feet of snow on the California ski resort, where the marketing team had to dig a tunnel to get to their office door. The storm closed highways and most lifts at ski resorts over the weekend. (Photo by Jacob Banta/Sugar Bowl Resort via AP Photo)

Hair stylist Marcelo Avatte (R) prepares to fit Isidora Serrano, a 14-year-old who lost her hair due to chemotherapy to treat her bone cancer, with a natural hair wig in the cancer ward of the Luis Calvo Mackenna Hospital in Santiago, October 23, 2014. The wigs, handmade by Italian-Chilean hair stylist Marcelo Avatte and his team, have helped the children regain their self-esteem and confidence during cancer treatment. Renowned for making customised wigs, Avatte has donated more than 300 wigs since 2009 and says he was motivated to begin the project by the pain he felt when his own son lost his hair during chemotherapy. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

A Syrian refugee girl plays outside a tent at a refugee camp in Zahle in the Bekaa valley November 18, 2014. In October, Lebanon, which has the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world at one in four residents, said it could not cope with more than one million Syrians and has asked for funds to help look after them. (Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

Migrants rush as they try to get on a train heading to the border with Serbia at the train station of Gevgelija, on the Macedonian-Greek border, on August 9, 2015. Non-EU Serbia's frontier with Hungary, which is in the bloc's passport-free Schengen zone, has become a major crossing point for the huge numbers of migrants entering the EU. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

In this April 1, 2017 picture a man dressed as a “Harramacho” a traditional character from the Navalacruz carnival poses for a picture before a traditional Spanish mask gathering in the small village of Casavieja, Spain. Every spring they come from towns across central and northwestern Spain, clad in elaborate costumes – some as trees, others as bears, still others as monsters who could have emerged from some sort of fever dream. (Photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP Photo)

People look at a man, who residents said was killed by al Qaeda militants, hanging on a bridge in Yemen's southeastern city of Mukalla June 17, 2015. Al Qaeda militants in Yemen killed two alleged Saudi spies, residents said, accusing them of planting tracking devices which enabled the assassination of the group's leader in a suspected U.S. drone strike. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)