1. Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012 winners

2. Australian based photographer Martin
Pugh impressed the judges in this year’s
competition with the depth and clarity of his
winning shot depicting the famous
Whirlpool Galaxy (M51). The image
combines incredible detail in the galaxy’s
spiral arms with the faint tails of light that
show M51’s small companion galaxy being
gradually torn apart by the gravity of its
giant neighbour; a closer look also reveals
more distant galaxies beyond.
Deep Space category winner, and overall
winner: M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy by
Martin Pugh (Australia)
Picture: Martin Pugh

4. Deep Space: The Smoking Sword ©
Michael Sidonio (Australia)
To the naked eye the Orion Nebula
appears as a small patch of hazy light
amongst the stars of Orion's sword. The
true scale and complexity of the Nebula
only becomes apparent when viewed
through a telescope. In the centre of the
nebula newly-formed stars blast their
surroundings with

6. Earth and Space category winner: Star Icefall by
Masahiro Miyasaka (Japan). Taken in Nagano,
Japan, this image shows Orion, Taurus and the
Pleiades as the backdrop to an eerie frozen
landscape. Though the stars appear to gleam with
a cold, frosty light, bright blue stars like the
Pleiades can be as hot as 30,000 degrees
Celsius.Picture: Masahiro Miyasaka

8. Earth and Space category runner-up:
Green World by Arild Heitmann (Norway).
The aurora borealis traces the shifting
patterns of the Earth’s magnetic field,
creating a spectacular midwinter show in
Nordland Fylke, Norway. The green light in
this image comes from oxygen atoms high
in the atmosphere, which have been
energised by subatomic particles from the
Solar Wind.
Picture: Arild Heitmann

10. People and Space category runner-up:
Lost in Yosemite [C 033706] by Steven
Christenson (USA). The photographer
came across two hikers lost in the
wilderness of Yosemite late one evening in
July 2011. He captured this image of the
tiny figures in a small bubble of torchlight
set within a vast, pitch black forest beneath
the immense dome of the sky. It highlights
the wonder, beauty and awe of astronomy.
Picture: Steven Christenson

12. Young Astronomy Photographer category
runner-up: Daytime Lunar Mosaic by
Laurent V Joli-Coeur (Canada, aged 15).
This young photographer has knitted
together several high resolution images of
the Moon in the daytime sky to form a
colourful mosaic. This wonderfully detailed
view shows the smooth dark maria (lunar
‘seas’) and lighter, bumpier highlands of
the Moon, both dotted with craters. The
peaceful blue colour of the daytime sky is
caused by scattering of blue light in the
Earth’s atmosphere.
Picture: Laurent V Joli-Coeur

14. Deep Space category runner-up: Simeis 147
Supernova Remnant by Rogelio Bernal Andreo
(USA). The photographer here set out to show
not only the main subject of the image – a vast
supernova remnant – but also the objects in the
wide starscape that surrounds it. Straddling the
constellations of Auriga and Taurus, Simeis 147
consists of the expanding debris of a massive
star which exploded around 40,000 years ago.
As the wreckage continues to spread out into
space it collides violently with the dust and gas
between the stars, sculpting it into the glowing
shells and filaments which have earned Simeis
147 the nickname of the ‘Spaghetti Nebula’.

16. Earth and Space category highly
commended: The Milky Way View from the
Piton de l'Eau, Reunion Island by Luc
Perrot (Reunion Island). The Milky Way
arches over a mirror-like lake on the island
of Reunion. At the bottom of the picture
Piton des Neiges, the highest peak of
Reunion Island, can be seen. The bright
patch to the left of the image marks the
bulge of stars at the heart of our Galaxy.
The photographer waited two years before
all the combined conditions were
favourable to succeed with this photo.
Picture: Luc Perrot

18. Our Solar System category highly
commended: Venus Transit by Paul Haese
(Australia). Perhaps the biggest
astronomical event of 2012 was the transit
of Venus, which took place in June.
Transits occur when Venus passes directly
between the Earth and the Sun, appearing
as a small black disc passing across the
face of our parent star. They occur in pairs,
eight years apart, with each pair separated
by over a century. The previous transit was
in 2004 and the next will not be until
December 2117. This is a spectacular view
of the active Sun, streaked and blotched
with filaments, sunspots and prominences.
Venus, a world almost exactly the same
size as the Earth, seems dwarfed by the
scale and power of our local star.
Picture: Paul Haese

20. Earth and Space category highly
commended: Sky away from the Lights by
Tunç Tezel (Turkey). Dark mountain peaks
frame two distinct lightscapes - the distant
glow of towns and villages, and the majestic
star fields of The Milky Way. Making the
most of an August night, the photographer
got this shot after trekking out to the Uludag
National Park near his hometown of Bursa,
Turkey.Picture: Tunç Tezel

22. Deep Space: IC 1396 - Elephant-Trunk
Nebula © Bill Snyder (USA)
This picture shows the column of dust
known as the 'Elephant's Trunk' in the
constellation of Cepheus. Deep within the
dense clumps of dust and gas that make
up the 'trunk' new stars are currently
forming.

24. Earth and Space: Sky Show © Tommy
Eliassen (Norway)
The dazzling Aurora Borealis over Høgtuva
Mountain in Norway. The Earth's magnetic
field funnels particles from the Solar Wind
down over the planet's polar regions. More
than 80 kilometres above the ground,
these particles collide with atoms and
molecules of gas in our

26. People and Space: It's Raining Stars ©
Miguel Claro (Portugal)
This time-lapse shows how the stars
appear to move across the sky as the
Earth rotates. In a humorous touch, an
observer appears to use an umbrella to
shelter from the star trails, whilst Jupiter is
also visible on the right of the silhouette.

28. Sunny Airlines by Dunja Zupanic (Croatia).
A chance alignment superimposes a jet
and its twin vapour trails against the disc of
the Sun. Also visible is an enormous
sunspot complex, a region of the Sun’s
surface in which intense magnetic fields
are suppressing the upwelling of heat from
the solar interior. Sunspot activity has been
increasing in 2012 as the Sun approaches
the peak of its eleven year-cycle.
Picture: © Dunja Zupanic (Croatia)

30. Deep Space: Cygnus © J-P Metsävainio (Finland)
This mosaic image reveals a huge swathe of the
sky in the constellation of Cygnus. Huge clouds of
colourful glowing gas and lanes of dark dust
stretch across the field of view. Their light is too
faint to register with the human eye, but long
exposure times and special filters allow us to
appreciate their grandeur and scale.

32. Earth and Space: Double Arch with a
Perseid Meteor and the Milky Way ©
Thomas O'Brien (USA)
A meteor captured streaking across the sky
above Arches National Park, Utah, during
the annual Perseid meteor shower. The
Perseids is one of the most prolific
showers, often with around 80 meteors an
hour during its peak.

34. Our Solar System: Active Sol © Paul
Haese (Australia)
This image shows solar activity including a
huge solar prominence. 2012 saw the Sun
moving towards the peak of its eleven
year-cycle of activity following an unusually
long and quiet lull. Sunspots, explosive
flares and prominences are much more
common than in previous years.

36. Our Solar System: 116 megapixel Moon
Mosaic © David Campbell (UK)
A multi-image mosaic of the Moon, which is
our nearest neighbour in space and
therefore appears larger in our sky than
any other astronomical object apart from
the Sun. Even a telescope of quite modest
magnification will only show a part of the
Moon's surface at one time, meaning that
multi-image mosaics such as this

38. Deep Space category highly commended:
NGC 6960 - The Witch's Broom by Robert
Franke (USA). Part of the Veil Nebula, the
‘Witch’s Broom’ is the glowing debris from a
supernova explosion – the violent death of a
massive star. Although the supernova
occurred several thousand years ago, the
gaseous debris is still expanding outwards,
producing this vast cloud-like structure. In
this image narrowband filters have been
used to greatly increase detail while giving a
reasonable representation of the nebula's
colour.

40. Earth and Space category highly
commended: Summer Nights in Michigan
by Michael A Rosinski (USA). This long-
exposure image contrasts the regular
arcs of star trails with the chaotic
swarming of fireflies - celestial, natural
and manmade light are captured in a
single photograph.Picture: Michael A
Rosinski

42. Our Solar System category winner: Transit
of Venus 2012 in Hydrogen-Alpha by Chris
Warren (UK). Perhaps the biggest
astronomical event of 2012 was the transit
of Venus, which took place in June.
Transits occur when Venus passes directly
between the Earth and the Sun, appearing
as a small black disc passing across the
face of our parent star. The next transit will
not take place for 105 years, in December
2117. This is a single unprocessed raw
frame shot using a hydrogen-alpha (Ha)
filter. It was captured early on the morning
of 6 June between second and third
contact, the photographer’s first and only
glimpse taken through a thin patch in the
clouds at Blackheath in London. The image
captures the excitement of the 2012 transit
of Venus, and the delight of observers in
the UK who managed to catch a fleeting
view despite the British weather.
Picture: Chris Warren

44. Our Solar System category highly
commended: Comet C2009 P1 Garradd by
Graham Relf (UK). Comet Garradd was
discovered in 2009 as it approached the
inner Solar System. It became visible
through binoculars in 2011 but has never
been visible to the naked eye. To bring out
the greenish glow of the comet’s halo the
photographer has used a long exposure.
The star trails show how he has tracked
the comet’s orbital motion to keep it in the
centre of the frame and the picture
illustrates how the comet moved relative to
the stars in 38 minutes.
Picture: Graham Relf

46. Deep Space category highly commended:
Sharpless-136: Ghost in Cepheus by Oleg
Bryzgalov (Ukraine). The spooky shapes
that seem to haunt this starry expanse are
in fact cosmic dust clouds that fill huge
volumes of space between the stars. The
dust consists of tiny grains of minerals and
ices and is an important building block for
the formation of future stars and planets.
The photographer had to travel 1,000
kilometres into the mountains of the
Crimea to find a sky dark enough to
capture this image.
Picture: Oleg Bryzgalov

48. Deep Space category highly commended:
The Perseus Cluster - Abell 426 by Robert
Franke (USA). Situated almost 250 million
light-years away from us, The Perseus
Cluster, also known as Abell 426, contains
more than 500 catalogued galaxies. Some
are spirals like the Milky Way while others
are giant, smooth elliptical systems.
Together they form one of the largest
structures in the Universe. Each smudge of
light in this photograph contains millions, if
not billions, of stars.
Picture: Robert Franke

50. Our Solar System category runner-up:
Mars in 2012 by Damian Peach (UK). This
sequence of photographs, taken in March
2012, uses the rotation of Mars to build up
a complete view of the planet’s surface. It
shows the gleaming north polar cap of
frozen water and carbon dioxide, the red
equatorial deserts and the darker southern
highlands. The photographer has captured
an amazing level of detail, including wispy
clouds in the thin Martian atmosphere.
Picture: Damian Peach

52. Our Solar System category highly
commended: Worlds of the Solar System
by Damian Peach (UK). This portrait
gallery features four of our planetary
neighbours in exquisite detail: the slender
crescent Venus on 28 May; Mars on 29
February showing the famous Syrtis Major
feature at the centre and brilliant clouds
over the Elysium Mons volcano on the
right; Jupiter on 1 February showing
Ganymede in transit, with Europa on the
right, and its shadow cast onto the planet;
Saturn close to opposition from 21 April
showing the remains of the giant storm
from the year before, as well as fine details
within the ring system. The photographer
shows the relative sizes of the planets as
they appear to an observer on Earth. In
reality Jupiter and Saturn would dwarf the
other planets, but they are both much
further away from us.
Picture: Damian Peach

54. Young Astronomy Photographer category
winner: Pleiades Cluster by Jacob von
Chorus (Canada, aged 15). Among the
nearest star clusters to Earth, the stars of
the Pleiades (Messier 45) are easily seen
with the naked eye in the Northern
hemisphere’s winter skies. While it is often
called the Seven Sisters, this beautiful
photograph reveals many more of the hot,
young stars which comprise the cluster.
The young photographer has also captured
the swirling wisps of a diaphanous gas
cloud through which the cluster is currently
passing, lighting it with reflected starlight. It
was taken near dusk, with two frames and
an hour of exposure.
Picture: Jacob von Chorus

56. Young Astronomy Photographer category
highly commended: Heavenly Showers by
Jathin Premjith (India, aged 15). This
photograph from the Young category of the
competition skilfully frames the streaming,
swirling patters of the Northern Lights with
treetops below and a starry sky above. In
the centre of the image, which was taken in
the far North, close to the Arctic Circle,
Orion the hunter is just visible through the
bright auroral display. Taurus the bull and
the bright Pleiades star cluster are seen in
the clear area to the upper right.
Picture: Jathin Premjith

58. Young Astronomy Photographer category
highly commended: Lunar Mountains by
Jacob Marchio (USA, aged 13). This skilled
young astrophotographer has captured a
beautifully sharp and artfully framed detail
of the Moon. The terminator – which
separates the daytime and night-time parts
of the Moon – is aligned with the bottom
edge of the photograph. The Sun’s light
shines at a low angle onto the surface of
the Moon just above this line, showing the
contrast between smooth maria (lunar
‘seas’) and rugged crater rims to the best
advantage.
Picture: Jacob Marchio

60. People and Space category winner: Facing
Venus-Jupiter Close Conjunction by
Laurent Laveder (France). This picture was
taken on the wet sand at low tide on the
beach at Tréguennec in North West France
and shows the conjunction of Venus and
Jupiter. One of the astronomical highlights
of 2012, the conjunction was the period
when the two bright planets appeared
conspicuously close together in the sky.
Their apparent closeness was an optical
illusion – Jupiter was in fact millions of
kilometres further away than Venus. The
photographer is pictured in the lower right
corner of the frame and the Pleiades and
Taurus are also visible on the upper left.
Picture: Laurent Laveder

62. Best Newcomer category winner:
Elephant's Trunk with Ananas by Lóránd
Fényes (Hungary). The Elephant’s Trunk
seems to uncoil from the dusty nebula on
the right of the image, its tip curled around
a cavity carved out by the radiation
produced by young stars. Capturing a deep
sky object like this takes skill and
painstaking attention to detail and is a
great achievement for a newcomer to
astrophotography.
Picture: Lóránd Fényes

63. Robotic Scope category winner: The
Sunflower Galaxy by Thomas Read (UK,
aged 12). A spiral system like the Milky
Way, Messier 63 has arms which encircle
the yellowish centre of the galaxy like the
petals of a flower, earning it the nickname
of the Sunflower Galaxy. This image was
captured by the young photographer using
the Bradford Robotic Telescope in Tenerife,
which he controlled over the internet.
Picture: Thomas Read

65. Young Astronomy Photographer of the
Year: Stargazers © Jessica Caterson (UK),
AGED 15
This is a self-portrait of the photographer
(far right) with her friends at her caravan
site in the Gower Peninsular, Wales.
Several short exposures were aligned and
combined to capture the crisp stars and
dark sky, while minimising trailing due to
the Earth's rotation; the visible progress of
the aeroplane in the upper right

66. cast Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012
images credit www.
Music "Prelude to Paradise", "Black Blade", "Heart of Courage”
created o.e.
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