2. Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013 shortlist
The Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the shortlist
for the 2013 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
Photographers captured spectacular sights from across our
solar system, the galaxy and beyond – from stunning auroras in
the Earth's atmosphere to frenzied storms on the sun and the
eddying gases of the Carina Nebula. Winners will be announced
on 18 September

3. A Flawless Point: the Milky Way arches over Yosemite Valley in California’s famous national
park. A lens-shaped (lenticular) cloud hovers over the granite dome of Liberty Cap, which rises
to more than 2,000 metres, near the centre of the photograph

5. The Night Photographer: camping
out in a remote location and
spending hours waiting for the
perfect shot is all in a night's work
for the dedicated astronomy
photographer. On the Korgfjellet
Mountain in Norway, this
photographer's patience was
rewarded with the sight of a bright
meteor streaking across the sky as
it burns up high in the Earth’s
atmosphere

7. Comet Panstarrs: Although a line of burnt orange along the horizon marks where sunset has
already occurred, most of the light in this image still comes ultimately from the sun. High in the sky
the bright disc of the moon is shining with reflected sunlight, while a tiny smudge above the sea is
sunlight reflecting from the dust and gas in the tail of Comet Panstarrs. Even the aurora’s ghostly
curtains of glowing gas are ultimately powered by the solar wind of subatomic particles blowing
from the sun. Only the stars shine with their own light

9. Eta Carinae and Her Keyhole: the Carina Nebula is a chaotic region of star formation several
thousand light years from Earth. In the central part of the nebula, shown here, dense clouds of
gas and dust are lit up by the light of newly born stars. One of these is Eta Carinae at the centre
of this image. More than a hundred times as massive as the sun, and millions of times brighter,
Eta Carinae is unstable and will one day explode as a supernova

11. Archway to Heaven: the band of our Milky Way galaxy is the dramatic backdrop for the rock
archway of Durdle Door on Dorset's Jurassic Coast in this carefully composed shot. The rock
formations on this stretch of the coast are more than 100m years old, but many of the stars in
the Milky Way are up to 10bn years old

13. Hunter's Moon over the Alps: As the full moon sinks in the west, the sun rises in the east, lighting
up the snow-capped Alpine horizon. Although both moon and mountain are illuminated by
sunlight, they owe their different colours to the scattering effects of the Earth’s atmosphere on
the sun's white light

15. Orion Nebula: Modern digital cameras can detect light too faint for the naked human eye. In
rendering this information as an image we can understand, astronomy photographers must make
practical and aesthetic choices about contrast, brightness and colour. Here, the photographer
has chosen a subdued palette to emphasise the delicate structure of the nebula’s dust clouds

17. Receiving the Galactic Beam: Here, the photographer has caught the moment when the Milky
Way appears to line up with the giant 64-metre dish of the radio telescope at Parkes
Observatory in Australia

19. Photographers on the Rim of Mývatn Craters: although displays of aurorae have become more
common as the sun nears the peak of its 11-year cycle of activity in 2013, these hilltop observers
in northern Iceland were lucky to witness such a spectacular example

21. Solar Max: Loops of plasma known as 'prominences' on the surface of the sun. The seething
surface is also pockmarked with sunspots. Both features only become visible when a filter is
used to remove the glare

23. Herbig-Haro Objects in the Pelican Nebula: jets of material blast from the poles of some newborn
stars. Here, these ‘Herbig-Haro objects’ can be seen emerging from the thick dust and gas
clouds of the Pelican Nebula, a stellar nursery in the constellation of Cygnus

25. Leaning In: familiar stars and
constellations form a line rising
up behind this windswept tree in
Dartmoor National Park in the
southwest of England. Just
above the horizon is Sirius, the
brightest star in the sky, followed
by the unmistakeable outline of
Orion the Hunter. Above this is
the triangular face of Taurus the
Bull with the orange star
Aldebaran, the disc of the moon
and the bright, compact cluster
of the Pleiades

27. Northern Lights XXIII: A vast sweep of shimmering aurora light appears to follow the frozen
shoreline in this shot. To capture all of the different sources of light – the stars, the aurora and
the streetlights of the distant towns – is a tricky balancing act

29. Full view of Noctilucent cloud: noctilucent clouds are made of tiny ice crystals high in the
atmosphere, around 80km above the ground. Their name means ‘night shining’ in Latin and
they only become visible during deep twilight conditions. Here, they put on a spectacular display
above the Pennine Hills of northern England

31. Venus Transit at the Black
Sea: transits of Venus are
rare. Transits occur in pairs
eight years apart, with each
pair separated by more than
a century. On each occasion,
Venus only takes around six
hours to cross the disc of the
sun

33. end
cast Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013 finalists
images credit www.
Music Oxygene 4 Jean Michel Jarre
created o.e.
thanks for watching