Autumn colors border a road leading through a small valley near Blankenburg am Harz, Germany, Wednesday, November 1, 2023. (Photo by Matthias Schrader/AP Photo)

Smoke plumes rise from Mount Etna, one of the most active volcanoes in the world in Sicily, Italy on June 28, 2016. (Photo by Etna Walk/Rex Feature/Shutterstock)

Wakodahatchee wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida, US. Equipped with sinewy necks and spear-like bills, great blue herons can lunge with fearsome speed to strike their aquatic prey. Adults will also employ rapid stabbing motions as one aspect of their complex courtship displays; they’re seemingly dangerous moves, but fitting to the intensity of mating season. (Photo by Melissa Rowell/Audubon Photography Awards)

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.

This view shows giant hot air balloons of various shapes being lifted to begin flights from the Metropolitan Park over the city of Leon during the 2025 International Balloon Festival (FIG) in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico on November 15, 2025. (Photo by Mario Armas/AFP Photo)

A woman cries while sitting on a road amid the destroyed city of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan March 13, 2011, after a massive earthquake and tsunami. Five years on from the tsunami that triggered meltdowns at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, the page is anything but turned. A magnitude 9 earthquake and towering tsunami on March 11, 2011 killed nearly 16,000 people along Japan's northeastern coast and left more than 2,500 missing. The 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships, cars and farm buildings. (Photo by Asahi Shimbun/Reuters)

Visitors look at a giant puppet of a grandmother sleeping on a bed inside St George's Hall in Liverpool, northern England July 23, 2014. The grandmother is one of two giant models made for a World War I commemorative event. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Reuters)

A brown bears cools off in a pool at the bear sanctuary near the village of Mramor, on August 18, 2020. The bear sanctuary was closed for visitors on August 18, as part of safety measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) disease. (Photo by Armend Nimani/AFP Photo)