A cleric and a woman pray behind a closed door of Masoume shrine in the city of Qom, some 80 miles (125 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 16, 2020. On Monday, Iran closed the Masoume shrine, a major pilgrimage site in the city of Qom, the epicenter of the country's new coronavirus outbreak. Authorities were already restricting access and barring pilgrims from kissing or touching the shrine, but it had remained open. (Photo by AP Photo)

A mobile phone showing the time at noon, is displayed for a photo in front of an almost empty road with low traffic, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, March 31, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Isabella Ferrari and Ben Ra pose for a photograph taken by Jacob deBlecourt at the City of Boston's Pride Kickoff event, celebrating the start of National LGBTQ+ Pride Month, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., June 1, 2022. (Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters)

A reveller surfs on top of the crowd during the Wacken Open Air 2022 heavy metal festival in Wacken, Germany on August 4, 2022. (Photo by Thilo Schmuelgen/Reuters)

Traffic moves as water is pumped out of an inundated residential area following torrential rains in Bengaluru, India on September 7, 2022. (Photo by Samuel Rajkumar/Reuters)

Junior Lambrechts has his face painted in preparation for the Cape Minstrel Carnival in Cape Town, South Africa on January 2, 2023. (Photo by Shelley Christians/Reuters)

A mechanical horse-dragon made of wood and steel is presented to the public in Nantes, western France on August 26, 2014. This horse-dragon, created by the French artist Francois Delaroziere of “Les Machines de l'île” (The Machines of the Isle), is the hero of the show "Long Ma" which will be presented in Beijing on October 17, 2014 as part of the fiftieth anniversary of the relationship between France and China. (Photo by Jean-Sebastien Evrard/AFP Photo)

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.