Al-Shamiyah Front fighters inspect a new locally-made cannon named “Borkan” (Volcano) as it was being launched towards forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad located in Aleppo artillery school, March 7, 2015. The “Borkan” is made out of four tubes attached to a loader, which can fire four shells at a time, and have a range of three kilometers (1.86 miles). (Photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters)

Following a large air raid by German bombers, local people, coming out of their air raid shelters found a bus standing on end in a large crater, in Balham, London, October 15, 1940. (Photo by AP Photo)

A jockey falls off during a traditional Barapan Kebo or buffalo races, in Taliwang, on the island of Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia November 22, 2015. Around 250 pairs of water buffalo took part in the Barapan Kebo ahead of the planting season, for prizes which included a top prize of a pilgrimage to Mecca. (Photo by Sigit Pamungkas/Reuters)

Hollywood actress Malin Akerman helps King Digital Entertainment set the Guinness World Record for the World's Largest Hammock to celebrate the launch of its new game Paradise Bay on Wednesday, September 2, 2015, in Jersey City, N.J. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision for King World Entertainment/AP Images)

Local villagers ride a local coal powered steam train on March 27, 2015 at a station in the town of Shixi , Sichuan Province, in Southern China. While China boasts the world's most extensive high-speed rail infrastructure with over 16,000 kilometers of track, the Shixi-Bagou railway is still a primary connection for local villagers between towns and is kept alive by tourist cars carrying passengers for ten times the price. The rail line came into service in the late 1950s and the train was initially used to transport coal from a now-shuttered mine before passenger carriages were added. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research centre located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as the United States Antarctic science facility. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.

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.

Undated handout photo of Buckbeak, a Hippogriff that lived with Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter series, has his feathers preened and replenished by featherologist Val Jones, as he will feature in the the Feathers and Flight event at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London. This is the first make-over Buckbeak has received since the hugely popular Harry Potter film series was made. His intricate coat is created from thousands of individually airbrushed chicken and goose feathers that Val will carefully clean and replenish in time for the start of Feathers and Flight. Val will lead an expert team to demonstrate the techniques that made winged wonders such as Buckbeak and Fawkes the Phoenix a reality on screen. (Photo by Tim Anderson/PA Wire)