INSIGHT ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR at the National Maritime Museum

The annual Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer Of The Year winners’ exhibition returns to the National Maritime Museum with some of the most amazing images ever, from remarkable close-up details of our sun to shots of galaxies millions of light years away.

Overall winner of this year’s competition is Hungarian László Francsics who pockets £10,000 for Into The Shadow (top), an extraordinary picture incorporating 35 phases of last January’s total lunar eclipse. Judge Ed Robinson said: “For a single multiple-exposure image to capture this event with such positional precision, creative innovation and beauty is nothing short of masterful.” Frankly, that’s an understatement – it’s nigh miraculous. And the other photos on display are just as awesome.

The beauty of German Nicolai Brügger’s shot of the aurora borealis over Norway’s Lofoten Islands (above) will take your breath away. And you’ll be left speechless by Davy van der Hoeven’s deep-sky image of the flower-shaped Rosette Nebula (below) not only for its exquisiteness but also because Davy is only 11 years old. The picture won the Dutch schoolboy first prize in the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year category.

The competition attracted a record 4,600 entries which were reduced to a shortlist of 68 for the exhibition by a panel of judges. One of them, Royal Observatory astronomer Tom Kerss, summed it up perfectly when he described the pictures as “real love letters to the art form” of astrophotography. And if you see anything quite as stunning this year you can consider yourself most fortunate.

Full details about the show, which runs till 26 April, at https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-photographer-year/exhibition