Lightning strikes during a storm over the Ionian Sea in Calabria, Italy on June 27, 2016. (Photo by Alfonso Di Vincenzo/Pacific Press/Rex Features)

A participant covers himself with a blanket as it rains at the venue of the World Culture Festival on the banks of a river in New Delhi, India, March 11, 2016. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

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)

What makes a watch the most valuable in the world? It’s supercomplicated – literally. In 1925 banker Henry Graves Jr. (considered the greatest watch collector of the 20th century) commissioned Patek Philippe to create a unique gold pocket watch. When Graves finally received it – eight years later – it was the most complex timepiece ever created by human hands... (Photo by Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)

Sharafkhaneh port and lake Urmia. Masoud Ghadiri (Iran). The summer Milky Way is very prominent in this photo. On the galaxy zone, Saturn is located besides the Lagoon nebula. On the right of the horizon, you can see the extreme light pollution of Urmia, which is caused by ever-increasing city development. (Photo by Masoud Ghadiri/National Maritime Museum)

Kelvingrove Park under heavy snow on January 7, 2022 amid a Met Office warning of snow stretching from the Highlands through to Glasgow and Edinburgh. (Photo by Ewan Bootman/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman tries to hold an umbrella amidst gusty winds as Cyclone Michaug is expected to make landfall on the eastern Indian coast, at Foreshore Estate Beach, in Chennai, India, 03 December 2023. The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for heavy rains in Chennai as the cyclonic storm, “Cyclone Michaung” is anticipated to make landfall between Andhra Pradesh's Nellore and Machilipatnam on December 05. (Photo by Idrees Mohammed/EPA/EFE)