Entries for Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15 are now open

COMPETITION DATES ANNOUNCED

2023 Competition dates:  9 January 2023 – 3 March 2022

4 January 2023: Royal Observatory Greenwich, supported by Liberty Specialty Markets and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, announces the dates for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15 competition – a global search for the most striking images of our cosmos.

Now in its fifteenth year, the annual competition invites entrants of all ages to submit up to ten pictures in categories ranging from Stars and Nebulae to People and Space with the chance to win the grand prize of £10,000. The competition opens on Monday 9 January 2023 and entrants will have until Friday 3 March 2023 (12:00 GMT) to submit their images via https://apy.rmg.co.uk/ (entry fees apply, for more information check the competition rules).

100 breathtaking images, including all the winners, runners-up and highly commended entries, from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15 competition will be displayed at the National Maritime Museum from September 2023. Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15 has nine main categories:

  • Skyscapes: Landscape and cityscape images of twilight and the night sky featuring the Milky Way, star trails, meteor showers, comets, conjunctions, constellation rises, halos and noctilucent clouds alongside elements of earthly scenery
  • Aurorae: Photographs featuring the Northern and Southern Lights
  • People and Space: Photographs of the night sky including people or a human interest element
  • Our Sun: Solar images including solar eclipses and transits
  • Our Moon: Lunar images including lunar eclipses and occultation of planets
  • Planets, Comets and Asteroids: Everything else in our Solar System, including planets and their satellites, comets, asteroids and other forms of zodiacal debris
  • Stars and Nebulae: Deep-space objects within the Milky Way galaxy, including stars, star clusters, supernova remnants, nebulae and other intergalactic phenomena
  • Galaxies: Deep-space objects beyond the Milky Way galaxy, including galaxies, galaxy clusters and stellar associations
  • Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Pictures taken by budding astronomers under the age of 16

As well as the nine main categories, Astronomy Photographer of the Year includes two special prizes, the Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer and the Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation.

The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer is open to amateur photographers who have taken up astrophotography in the past year and have not entered an image in the competition previously. The Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation recognises the best photo processed using pre-existing open source data, bringing together the worlds of the arts, astronomy and astrophotography. Visit rmg.co.uk/imageinnovation to learn more about the Annie Maunder Prize and see step-by-step guides for finding images and image processing.

Entries to the competition must be submitted by 3 March 2023, and the winning images will be showcased in the annual exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, opening on 16 September 2023.

Photographers can enter online by visiting https://apy.rmg.co.uk/. Each entrant may submit up to ten images to the competition.

Notes to Editors

1. The winners of the Royal Observatory’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15 will be announced at an award ceremony on 14 September 2023. The winning photographs will be exhibited at the National Maritime Museum alongside a selection of shortlisted images. General admission will be £10.

2. The overall winner will receive £10,000. Winners of all other categories and the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year will receive £1,500. The winner of the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year will also receive a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ MD telescope, kindly donated by Celestron. There are also prizes for runners-up (£500) and highly commended (£250) entries. The special prize winners will receive £750. All the winning entrants will receive a one-year subscription to BBC Sky at Night Magazine. 

3. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian and one of the most important historic scientific sites in the world. Since its founding in 1675, Greenwich has been at the centre of the measurement of time and space, and visitors today can still stand on the historic Prime Meridian line. The Observatory galleries and Peter Harrison Planetarium help unravel the extraordinary phenomena of time, space and astronomy. In 2018 the Royal Observatory acquired the Annie Maunder Astrographic Telescope (AMAT), the first new telescope to be installed in Greenwich in over 60 years, marking a new era for the world-famous site and restoring its status as a working Observatory.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, which also incorporates the National Maritime Museum, the Queen’s House and Cutty Sark. This unique collection of museums and heritage buildings, which form a key part of the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site, welcomes over two and a half million British and international visitors a year and is also a major centre of education and research. The mission of Royal Museums Greenwich is to enrich people’s understanding of the sea, the exploration of space and Britain's role in world history. For more information visit www.rmg.co.uk

4. Liberty Specialty Markets offers specialty and commercial insurance and reinsurance products across key UK, European, Middle East, US, Bermuda, Asia Pacific & Latin America markets. We provide brokers and insurers with a broad product range through both the Company and Lloyd’s markets and have over 2,000 employees in approximately 60 offices.

At Liberty Mutual, we believe progress happens when people feel secure. By providing protection for the unexpected and delivering it with care, we help people embrace today and confidently pursue tomorrow.

In business since 1912, and headquartered in Boston, Liberty Mutual Insurance is the sixth largest global property and casualty insurer based on 2020 gross written premium. Liberty Mutual Insurance ranks 71st on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2020 revenue. As of December 31, 2020, we had $43.8 billion in annual consolidated revenue.

Liberty Mutual Insurance employs over 45,000 people in 29 countries and economies around the world. We offer a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, specialty lines, reinsurance, commercial multiple-peril, workers compensation, commercial automobile, general liability, surety, and commercial property.

5. About BBC Sky at Night Magazine

BBC Sky at Night Magazine is Britain’s best-selling astronomy magazine, with a combined print and digital circulation of 20,788 copies a month. skyatnightmagazine.com has 700,000 visits a month and reaches 80,000 organic social media followers through Facebook and Twitter. The magazine is available on Apple Newsstand, Google Play and Zinio as well as in print, and is media partner of the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by Royal Observatory Greenwich. With writing from the world’s leading astronomers and science communicators, BBC Sky at Night Magazine complements one of the world’s longest running TV programmes, BBC Four’s The Sky at Night, and is published by Our Media, an Immediate Group company, under license from BBC Worldwide.

6. Royal Observatory Greenwich, in partnership with Collins, will be publishing Astronomy Photographer of the Year, Collection 12 in September 2023. It is the official publication of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition and will showcase breathtaking images of space and the night sky from the 2023 competition shortlist. Photographs will be accompanied by full details including each photographer’s information, location where photographs were taken and technical specifications.

The collection of last year’s prize-winning images is still available to buy: Astronomy Photographer of the Year, Collection 11 / RRP £25.00 / Hardback / Published September 2022 / Royal Museums Greenwich online shop. For further information or to request review copies please contact: Marta Juncosa / marta.juncosa@harpercollins.co.uk / 020 8307 4176

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Media interviews:

Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Modern Astronomy team is dedicated to the public understanding of science and its experts are available to give radio and TV interviews on astronomy – at the historic Observatory site or in the studio.

The Observatory offers a short notice service to media stations looking for comment/interviews on any aspect of modern astronomy – discussing new discoveries and space missions, telling people what to look for in this month’s night sky, or talking about old favourites like black holes, whether there is life beyond Earth and the origins of the Universe.

 

For further information or images, please contact:

Royal Observatory Greenwich Press Office
Tel: 020 8312 6790/6667/6545
or Email: press@rmg.co.uk