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.

South Korean special warfare command soldiers participate in winter military training exercise on January 11, 2012 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. The South Korean troops train in temperatures below -20 degrees celsius to defend the country against any possible attacks from North Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

“Double head vulture”. On the day of windy days during raptors migration some people in my country start to catch these tired raptors, so in this day we go to photograph some raptors and we saw these tow tired vultures, so we start to drag them away from the hunters until they reach a good hidden place, to make them safe until they start a new journey. Photo location: Kuwait. (Photo and caption by Mohd Khorshed/National Geographic Photo Contest)

These breathtaking images capture the hidden depths of one of the worlds largest caves, which is so big its home to a beach, a river and a jungle. At more than 130m high, and 150m across, the imposing cave is so big as high as the London Eye and wider than one-and-a-half football pitches. Here: The campers set up inside the cave on the beach. (Photo by Lars Krux/Caters News)

The Northern Lights glow green in a spectacular light show above a field of trees frozen solid with snow. (Photo by Jaak Sarv/Solent News & Photo Agency)

These are the stomach-churning pictures of the swing at the end of the world – a rickety wooden swing hanging over a precipice 2,660 metres above sea level – and not a seatbelt in sight. (Photo by Caters News)

A giant storm cloud can be seen in the sky above swimmers near Mollymook Beach, south of Sydney, March 5, 2014. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)