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 competitor calls with a shell at the German championships in Deer-Calling at the “Jagd & Hund” (hunting & dog) exhibition in Dortmund February 6, 2015. Competitors use specially designed instruments or ox horns to imitate the mating call of red deers. About 750 exhibitors will present their latest developments at the 34th “Jagd & Hund” exhibition, which runs from February 3 to February 8. (Photo by Ina Fassbender/Reuters)

A close-up shot of dews of a soldier fly on August 2014, in Banten, Indonesia. Wildlife photographer takes incredible close-up images of tiny bugs. Yudy Sauw has captured close-up images of creepy crawlies – revealing their disturbing faces. The insects have an assortment bulging eyes and sharp pincers and look grotesque in the face-to-face shots. The miniature-models include a soldier fly, a red ant and a longhorn beetle. The 33-year-old photographed the bugs at his home studio in Banten, Indonesia, placing them 2-10 centimeters away from the camera. (Photo by Yudy Sauw/Barcroft Media)

A woman lays in a puddle of tomato juice during the annual “Tomatina” tomato fight fiesta in the village of Bunol, 50 kilometers outside Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, August 27, 2014. The streets of an eastern Spanish town are awash with red pulp as thousands of people pelt each other with tomatoes in the annual “Tomatina” battle that has become a major tourist attraction. At the annual fiesta in Bunol on Wednesday, trucks dumped 125 tons of ripe tomatoes for some 22,000 participants, many from abroad to throw during the hour-long morning festivities. (Photo by Alberto Saiz/AP Photo)

Tourists photograph a red dear stag visiting a car park near Glen Coe on December 1, 2017 in Glen Coe,Scotland. On the first day of the meteorological calendar, the UK was experiencing slightly warmer temperatures today with weather forecasters indicating that the recent cold spell is almost over. Yesterday's snow across eastern parts of England is expected to melt away over the course Friday as temperatures start to rise. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

Felix Gelin and Claudine Jean describe in sign language how their community, the La Piste encampment, went up in flames this past summer, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, September 20, 2021. According to residents and a United Nations account, police lead the assault at dusk on the encampment, a shelter for deaf and disabled Haitians relocated there by the International Red Cross after the 2010 earthquake leveled the capital. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Russian Communist party activists and supporters carry portraits of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin (R) and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (L) as they attend a flowers-laying ceremony at the Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square in downtown Moscow on November 7, 2021, marking the 104th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution also known as the October Revolution. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

Reflected in the rearview mirror, Jose Collantes gets a hug from daughter Kehity while they're stopped at a red light, as Jose drives his five-year-old home from a playdate in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, September 6, 2020, three months after they lost his wife, her mother, to COVID-19. Their case highlights how COVID-19 deaths the world over are often the beginning of a new personal journey for those affected. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP Photo)