British singer-songwriter Rita Ora visits The Empire State Building on July 09, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)

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.

Director Pawel Pawlikowski holds his Oscar for best foreign language film for “Ida”, with presenters Chiwetel Ejiofor (L) and Nicole Kidman during the 87th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 22, 2015. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

“Early morning in Mandawa, rural Rajasthan: it was the morning of Diwali and the streets were swept by smiling women in brightly coloured sarees as I took an early morning cup of chai. Celebrations started later, when darkness fell”. (Photo by Hamish Scott-Brown/Guardian Witness)

Taylor Swift performs “All Too Well” at the 56th annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision)

The Wildscreen festival is the world’s biggest celebration of screen-based natural history storytelling which takes place every two years in Bristol. Here: “Walrus in Midnight Sun”. Walrus feed mostly on bivalves in productive, shallow and often sandy habitats in the Arctic. This individual, though, arrived on a beach outside Tromsø, northern Norway, and found comfort on a stranded dead sperm whale. After two weeks he approached Audun, and only half a metre away he stretched his tusk forward and touched his hand gently. “This was one of the most memorable moments of my life”, Rikardsen says. He named the 500kg male Buddy. After two months, the dead whale was decomposed and Buddy suddenly disappeared. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Wildscreen 2016)

Swedish actress Malin Akerman arrives at the 2025 Baby2Baby gala on Saturday, November 8, 2025, at Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Photo)

Joseph Szabo was a frustrated high-school teacher in need of inspiration – so he started photographing his students, and captured all the angst and excitement of being caught between childhood and adulthood. Here: “Priscilla”, 1969. (Photo by Joseph Szabo/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery/The Guardian)