Protesting university students flee as police fire stun grenades outside Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday October 21, 2015. The protests are part of a wave of nationwide protests that have shut down many South Africa universities, which say they are struggling with higher operational costs as well as inadequate state subsidies. (Photo by AP Photo)

An Indian women offers early-morning prayers or a “puja” at a ghat early in the morning on the banks of the Betawa River in Orchha in the state of Madhya Pradesh on July 5, 2015. (Photo by Rebecca Conway/AFP Photo)

Participants in costumes pose before a Halloween parade in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, Japan on October 28, 2018. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

Revelers pose before the start of the Los Angeles Pride parade on June 9, 2019 in West Hollywood, California. The 49th annual parade, celebrating LGBTQ identity, drew thousands to the streets of West Hollywood. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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.

Taliban security forces ride horses along the Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul on May 11, 2023. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

In this Friday, January 7, 2011 photo, people carry baskets of coal scavenged illegally at an open-cast mine in the village of Bokapahari in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand where a community of coal scavengers live and work. The world's biggest coal users – China, the United States and India – have boosted coal mining in 2017, in an abrupt departure from last year's record global decline for the heavily polluting fuel and a setback to efforts to rein in climate change emissions. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/AP Photo)

A three-seater Toyota Kikai concept car is displayed during the 2016 CES trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada January 8, 2016. (Photo by Steve Marcus/Reuters)