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Andromeda, Unexpected © Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner and Yann Sainty |
The overall winners of the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15 are Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner and Yann Sainty for their photograph Andromeda, Unexpected that captures a surprising discovery – a huge plasma arc next to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Scientists are now investigating the giant object in a transnational collaboration. It could be the largest such structure nearest to us in the Universe. The image will be on display alongside the winners of the other categories in the accompanying exhibition, opening at the National Maritime Museum on Saturday 16 September 2023.
The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. It is undoubtedly one of the most photographed deep sky objects ever. The discovery of such a large structure in the immediate vicinity of the galaxy was all the more surprising. The arc has an extension of about 1.5 x 0.45 degrees, is only 1.2 degrees away from the centre of M31 and is located southeast of the main body of the galaxy.
Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner and Yann Sainty said, ‘It's an enormous honour for our team to receive this important award and we are grateful for all the support, friendship and encouragement we have received along our journey. It encourages us to continue to pursue our passion for astrophotography and, of course, research with dedication.’
László Francsics judge and astrophotographer said ‘This astrophoto is as spectacular as [it is] valuable. It not only presents Andromeda in a new way, but also raises the quality of astrophotography to a higher level.’
The Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year award was won by two fourteen-year-old boys from China. Runwei Xu and Binyu Wang collaborated to capture The Running Chicken Nebula, Yuri Beletsky, judge and professional astronomer described it as a ‘strikingly beautiful picture’.
Xu and Wang said, ‘Thank you to the Greenwich judges. We’re very glad to receive this achievement as winners of the Young Competition.’
The other winning images include Circle of Light by Andreas Ettl, which shows the Northern Lights reflected on Skagsanden beach, Norway; The Dark Wolf - Fenrir by James Baguley, that shows a molecular cloud in the form of a wolf; A Sun Question by Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, which captures a huge filament in the shape of a question mark; and Grand Cosmic Fireworks by Angel An, a photograph of the extremely rare phenomenon of atmospheric luminescence. In the Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation category, judges were impressed by John White’s Black Echo, which used audio source material from NASA’s Chandra Sonification Project, to visually capture the sound of the black hole at the centre of the Perseus Galaxy.
Another of the judges’ favourite images was New Class of Galactic Nebulae Around the Star YY Hya by Marcel Dreschsler that won the Stars and Nebulae category. The photograph captures a previously unknown galactic nebula containing a pair of stars surrounded by a common envelope, adding another exciting discovery to the winning images.
Dr Ed Bloomer, astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich said, ‘Once again, entrants to the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition have conspired to make things difficult for the judges, with a flood of high-quality images covering an amazing range of targets. The highlight of this year is perhaps a number of genuine discoveries being imaged, but we've had wonderful efforts in every category and I'm particularly pleased to see the continued strength of our young entrants and those eligible for The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer. It has led to some intense debate amongst the judges as we try to choose the very best of the best, but we don’t mind!’
The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is run by Royal Observatory Greenwich, supported by Liberty Specialty Markets and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine. For the 2023 competition there were over 4,000 entries from 64 countries.
Exhibition information for visitors:
Venue: National Maritime Museum, London
Dates: Opening 16 September 2023
Website: www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto
Visitor Enquiries: 020 8858 4422 | bookings@rmg.co.uk
Twitter: @RMGreenwich #APY15
Instagram: @royalmuseumsgreenwich #APY15
Facebook /royalmuseumsgreenwich #APY15
Astrophotography Group: facebook.com/groups/astrophotos
Notes to editors
1. Full details of the 2023 winners
Galaxies
- Marcel Drechsler (Germany), Xavier Strottner (France) and Yann Sainty (France) with Andromeda, Unexpected (Winner and Overall Winner)
- Weitang Liang (China) with The Eyes Galaxies (Runner-Up)
- Paul Montague (Australia) with Neighbours (Highly Commended)
Aurorae
- Monika Deviat (Canada) with Brushstroke (Winner)
- Andreas Ettl (Germany) with Circle of Light (Runner-Up)
- Chester Hall-Fernandez (New Zealand) with Fire on the Horizon (Highly Commended)
Our Moon
- Ethan Chappel (USA) with Mars-Set (Winner)
- Tom Williams (UK) with Sundown on the Terminator (Runner-Up)
- Miguel Claro (Portugal) with Last Full Moon of the Year Featuring a Colourful Corona During a Close Encounter with Mars (Highly Commended)
Our Sun
- Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau (Argentina) with A Sun Question (Winner)
- Peter Ward (Australia) with Dark Star (Runner-Up)
- Mehmet Ergün (Germany) with The Great Solar Flare (Highly Commended)
People and Space
- Vikas Chander (India) with Zeila (Winner)
- Andrew McCarthy (USA) with A Visit to Tycho (Runner-Up)
- Katie McGuinness (UK) with Close Encounters of The Haslingden Kind (Highly Commended)
Planets, Comets and Asteroids
- Tom Williams (UK) with Suspended in the Sunbeam (Winner)
- Marco Lorenzi (Italy) with Jupiter Close to Opposition (Runner-Up)
- Martin Lewis (UK) with Uranus with Umbriel, Ariel, Miranda, Oberon and Titania (Highly Commended)
Skyscapes
- Angel An (China) with Grand Cosmic Fireworks (Winner)
- Louis Leroux-Gere (France) with Celestial Equator Above First World War Trench Memorial (Runner-Up)
- Ksawery Wróbel (Poland) with Solargraph 209 Days (Highly Commended)
Stars and Nebulae
- Marcel Drechsler (Germany) with New Class of Galactic Nebulae Around the Star YY Hya (Winner)
- Anthony Quintile (USA) with LDN 1448 et al. (Runner-Up)
- James Baguley (Australia) with The Dark Wolf – Fenrir (Highly Commended)
The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer
- Aaron Wilhelm (USA) with Sh2-132: Blinded by the Light (Winner)
Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year
- Runwei Xu (China) and Binyu Wang (China) with The Running Chicken Nebula (Winner)
- Haocheng Li (China) and Runwei Xu (China) with Blue Spirit Drifting in the Clouds (Runner-Up)
- Haohan Sun (China) with Moon at Nightfall (Highly Commended)
- Yanhao Mo (China) with Roses Blooming in the Dark: NGC 2337 (Highly Commended)
- Joshua Harwood-White (UK) with Lunar Occultation of Mars (Highly Commended)
The Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation
- John White (UK) with Black Echo (Winner)
2. The winners of Royal Observatory Greenwich’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.
3. The overall winner will receive £10,000. Winners of all other categories and the photographer named winner in the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year category will receive £1,500. The Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year winner 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.
4. 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, the Royal Observatory in 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 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.
5. Liberty Specialty Markets, part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, 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 50 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, today we are the fifth largest global property and casualty insurer based on 2022 gross written premium. We also rank 86 on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the US based on 2022 revenue. As of 31 December 2022, we had $50 billion in annual consolidated revenue.
We employ over 50,000 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.
6. BBC Sky at Night Magazine is Britain’s best-selling astronomy magazine, with a combined print and digital monthly circulation of 21,760. skyatnightmagazine.com has 700,000 visits a month and reaches 100,000 organic social media followers through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The magazine is available monthly through its app (available on Apple App Store and Google Play), on Apple News, on Zinio and 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 under licence from BBC Worldwide.
7. Royal Observatory Greenwich, in partnership with Collins, will be publishing Astronomy Photographer of the Year, Collection 12 in September 2023, RRP £30. 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.
For further information or to request review copies please contact: Marta Juncosa / marta.juncosa@harpercollins.co.uk / 020 8307 4176. The publication is available for pre-order through Royal Museums Greenwich online shop and will be available for purchase onsite at the Museum once the winners have been announced.
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