Gorgeous galaxies and stunning stars make up this selection of pictures from the shortlisted entries for this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. The winners will be announced on 15 September, and an exhibition of the winning images will be will be displayed in a free exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Centre from 17 September. Here: “Seven Magic Points”. The rusty red swirls of the circular, iron sculpture Seven Magic Points in Brattebergan, Norway mirror the rippling aurora above. (Photo by Rune Engebø/Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016/National Maritime Museum)

A boy plays on the glass at Thailand's first skywalk in Bangkok, Thailand on November 18, 2018. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

A woman poses with a grenade launcher at a weapons exhibition during festivities marking Marines Day in St.Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, November 24, 2018. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Novice DSLR (Digital single-lens reflex camera), 2nd Place. “Smile of a Friend”, American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) in Jucaro, Cuba. (Photo by Antonio Pastrana/The Ocean Art 2018 Underwater Photography Competition)

Blindfolded Myanmar boys try to eat the biscuits during a fair on the occasion of the 73rd Myanmar Independence Day in Yangon, Myanmar, 04 January 2021. Myanmar, also known as Burma, was colonized by Britain in 1824 and became an independent republic on 04 January 1948. (Photo by Lynn Bo Bo/EPA/EFE)

A dog at the Zoozashchita-NN veterinary clinic in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia on February 19, 2021. On February 13, 13 stray dogs with bright blue fur were found and caught at the Dzerzhinskoye Steklo (Dzerzhinsk Glass) factory producing acrylic glass and prussic acid in the city of Dzerzhinsk. The dogs' fur tested positive for the Prussian blue pigment; now the dogs are under supervision at the Zoozashchita-NN vet clinic in Nizhny Novgorod. (Photo by Mikhail Solunin/TASS)

Artists wearing face shields perform during a ceremony held by the Bangkok National Museum to celebrate the return of two ancient relics, believed to have been stolen from Thailand about 60 years ago, from the United States, in Bangkok, Thailand on May 31, 2021. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Valentyna Konstantynovska, 79 years-old, holds a weapon during basic combat training for civilians, organized by the Special Forces Unit Azov, of Ukraine's National Guard, in Mariupol, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, February 13, 2022. The United States is evacuating almost all of the staff from its embassy in Kyiv as Western intelligence officials warn that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is increasingly imminent. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)