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.

Enjoying a tickle from her keeper, an orphaned orangutan at the SOCP Quarantine Centre in Sumatra, Indonesia on March 20, 2016. The island’s orangutan population has been devastated in recent years as the forest areas are destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations. (Photo by Jami Tarris/Barcroft Media)

Alligators and an egret stand on the banks of the Bento Gomes river next to the Transpantaneira road at the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Monday, September 14, 2020. A vast swath of the vital wetlands is burning in Brazil, sweeping across several national parks and obscuring the sun behind dense smoke. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)

Traditional “Tantawawas” bread shaped like children sit on a grave as a Day of the Dead offering at the Villa Ingenio cemetery in El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, November 2, 2020. (Photo by Juan Karita/AP Photo)

This family of warthogs regularly visited our campsite in the Ethiopian highlands so I set up a remote camera with a wide-angle lens to photograph them as they rummaged around for food. They just had a mud bath. (Photo by Will Burrard-Lucas/Caters News Agency)

Tia the springer spaniel chases after the ball as owner Monika Burton falls over in the background. The funny scene was captured by husband, Vince Burton at Wells Next The Sea, Norfolk, on Easter Monday, April 18, 2022. (Photo by Vince Burton/Animal News Agency)

Medical workers wearing protective gear to protect against coronavirus infection, carry a patient at infectious diseases hospital where patients with coronavirus are treated in St.Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2020. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Pangolins in Crisis: Brent Stirton, South Africa; 1st place, Natural world and wildlife. “Pangolins are the world’s most illegally trafficked mammals, with an estimated one million trafficked to Asia in the last 10 years. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, and their meat is sold as a high-priced delicacy. As a result, pangolins are listed as critically endangered and anyone who trades or consumes them is breaking the law. This body of work exposes the trade, while exploring aspects of illegality and celebrating the people who are trying to save these animals”. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Sony World Photography Awards 2020)