Some of the best entries so far in the 2016 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. There are two weeks left to enter, and the winners will be announced in September. Here: Aurora over Laksvatn Fjord, Laksvatn, Norway. The aurora borealis dances in the skies over the town of Laksvatn, with the Milky Way to the left. The image is a single shot with no compositing, only post-processing to bring out the aurora, and some colour corrections. The photographer Matt Walford said: “I love the way the northern lights look like they are just wistfully dancing over the fjord, framed by the mountains on either side”. (Photo by Matt Walford/National Maritime Museum)

A 13-month-old chimp named Fumo carries a “Christmas present” of food treats in wrapping paper under his arm during a Christmas-themed feeding time at Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo, December 9, 2014. Fumo, meaning “chief” or “spear” in Swahili, is one of the latest additions to the zoo's successful primate breeding program. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

People take pictures of the sun rising next to the buildings of the banking district in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, December 28, 2019. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Underwater photographer of the year – winner. Dancing Octopus by Gabriel Barathieu (France). Location: Island of Mayotte, off the coast of south-east Africa. “Balletic and malevolent”, one judge said of this octopus, hunting in a lagoon. Barathieu waited until spring tides when there was just 30cm of water on the flats and plenty of light in the shallows. (Photo by Gabriel Barathieu/UPY2017)

Behaviour: Mammals category. Giant Gathering by Tony Wu, USA. Dozens of sperm whales mingled noisily off Sri Lanka’s northeast coast, stacked as far down as Tony could see. This was a congregation of dozens of social units, like a gathering of the clans. Aggregations like this could be a critical part of the whales’ rich social lives but are rarely reported. Some two thirds of the population was wiped out before commercial whaling was banned in 1986. This kind of major gathering could be “a sign that populations are recovering”, says Tony. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017)

A young girl from the Makonde ethnic group wearing earth makeup on her facen, a beauty symbol, carries a baby on her back as she poses for pictures in the community of Marupa, a relocation center for internally displaced families in the Chiure district, on February 23, 2021. Thousands of families from different districts of the Cabo Delgado province who have been displaced have been located by the government in different areas of the province. (Photo by Alfredo Zuniga/AFP Photo)

A woman dressed in traditional costumes jumps over a bonfire to commemorate the day of Santa Agueda in Andavias, Spain, on February 6, 2022. In the province of Zamora it is quite a tradition, the women take over the city and the towns to gain control in the province, the councils give them the batons as a sign of authority, they celebrate around 7 days of festivity where they dance, eat, live the festival and honor Santa Agueda. (Photo by Manuel Balles/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

An Indian Runner duck searches for food on a snow-covered meadow in Aitrang, southern Germany, Wednesday. April 19, 2017. (Photo by Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/DPA via AP Photo)