There is something arresting about peering into the cosmos — how aurora borealis paints the sky in greens and purples, how nebulae swirl in color and gas, how the Milky Way arcs like a bright thread. The latest ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition captures all of this and more with over 5,800 submissions from astrophotographers across 60+ countries. The images stretch the imagination: distant galaxies, lunar surfaces, stellar nurseries, auroral curtains that dance across remote landscapes. Such work reminds us how vast and mysterious the universe is — and how much beauty lies hidden if we only look.
The grand prize went to Weitang Liang, Qi Yang, and Chuhong Yu for their image The Andromeda Core, taken with a focal-length telescope at Spain’s AstroCamp Observatory. Their photograph reveals the dense heart of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), showing layers upon layers of stars and cosmic structure in staggering detail. It’s one thing to know these galaxies exist; it’s another to see their core glow, to observe the clustering, the chaotic mix of light and shadow, all in one frame.
Other categories pushed boundaries in equally compelling ways. In the Auroral groups, Kavan Chay’s “Crown of Light,” from New Zealand, took top honors; Luis Vilariño’s runner-up showed a brilliant green curtain of aurora over Iceland’s otherworldly terrain. Meanwhile, in categories like Skyscapes, Our Sun, Our Moon, and Stars and Nebulae, photographers captured solar prominences, delicate refracted moonlight, and the filamentary tendrils of nebulae. Every image is a tribute to patience, technical mastery, and the miraculous variety of celestial phenomena.
If you want to see more, the Royal Museums Greenwich has posted a gallery of the winners. The National Maritime Museum is also hosting light-box presentations of over 100 of the selected astrophotographs. The ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 17 exhibition runs through August 2026 — plenty of time to experience cosmic beauty in large scale, close up, and in all its rich detail.
More info: Website.
