People's Choice Award: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2023

After nearly 15,000 votes were cast online and inside the exhibition, the winner and runners-up of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2023 People's Choice Award have now been revealed!

Explore the winning and shortlisted images below, and see them for yourself at the Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition at the National Maritime Museum.

Winner: The Great Solar Flare © Mehmet Ergün

Mehmet's photograph of our closest star has pipped all the other images to the post to be named the winner of 2023's People's Choice Award.

"Here we see our sun, photographed using an H-alpha solar telescope," explains Mehmet.

"The Sun is moving towards its maximum cycle, and in the photo, we can see a large solar flare. Solar flares are sudden bursts of magnetic energy on the surface of the Sun. These eruptions can be very large, as seen in the image. According to our calculation, this solar flare is about 700,000 km long; Earth has a diameter of about 12,700 km."

Second place: A Rocky Rise © Carl Evans

A Rocky Rise secured second place.

Carl explains, "This is an image of the Full Moon rising over Church Rock in Broadhaven, Pembrokeshire. I stood on the beach at Broadhaven for a couple of hours waiting for the Moon to rise."

"The clouds initially hid the Moon and as I was walking away it appeared among the clouds, adding a nice effect over it. I took two shots for the image: one for the Moon and one with a faster shutter speed to catch a flock of birds flying around the rock."

Third place: Butterfly © Vincent Beudez

Coming in third place is Vincent's aurora photograph Butterfly.

"I often talk about the shapes of the Northern Lights; each person who witnesses aurorae has an individual experience and is able to conjure the shapes they wish to see," Vincent says.

"This is why they are unique. I immediately saw a butterfly shape in the aurora dancing above my head when I captured this photograph."