18 best astronomical photos of the year

Amateur astronomers and professional astrophotography can get famous worldwide thanks to its magical images.

After receiving a record 1700 entries for the annual competition "Astronomy Picture of the Year" Royal Observatory, finally announced the winners. Without a doubt, this is only a small part of the spectacular cosmic photos caught the competition.

1. Northern lights over the frozen lagoon, James Woodend, United Kingdom

The winner of the "Earth and Space"

Pale green glow aurora occurs from exposure to oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere of subatomic particles ejected sun. These particles are attracted to the north and south poles of the magnetic field of the Earth, and that is why such a light show so often observed in the frozen landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic. The photographer managed to catch the thin ice color of earth, water and sky.

2 Star tracks over wind farm, Matt James, Australia

Second place in the category of "Earth and Space"

This monochrome composition with high quality graphics. It demonstrates the power of the wind with the apparent motion of the sky: the earth's rotation makes the stars trace movement in a real downpour. One of the wind turbines, unlike the others, remains real. It is clearly distinguishable blades stand out among the rest, similar to the dandelion.

3. Lunar Ball, Patrick Cullis, USA

This has been praised by the photograph was taken from a high-altitude balloon launched in Boulder, at an altitude of 26 500 meters just west of Denver, Colorado. Moon became visible only when the balloon passed through a bright haze of the atmosphere and entered the rarefied air of the stratosphere.

4. Venus - the Moon, O Chul Kwon, South Korea

Photography has been praised in the "Earth and Space"

Using high dynamic range (HDR) photographer counterbalanced brightness of the rising of the moon and Venus are much more distant, to show us what happens when they are in the same position in the sky. Venus is hidden from us our closest cosmic neighbor, but becomes visible in less than an hour. The photo shows a relatively rapid apparent motion of the Moon around the Earth, one of its orbit around the planet takes 27 days 3. This is an impressive interaction of the moon and Venus can be seen from certain places on Earth several times a year, but it takes careful planning to take his picture.

5. The eclipse above the clouds, Katalin baldeya, Romania

Another highly otsenonnoe photo

The total solar eclipse - is one of the most beautiful sights of nature, it is not surprising that many people are willing to go to great lengths to see at least one. On Earth during a total eclipse, when the Moon completely obscures the Sun, it lasts only a few minutes. But bad weather can destroy your chances of seeing it. Here you may need the plane: you can fly above the clouds and pursue the shadow of the moon, holding its way around the Earth.

6. The ripples on a pond, Alexander Hart, United Kingdom

The winner of the "Our Solar System"

The boiling surface of the Sun, located somewhere far below us, was captured on an unforgettable picture conveys the full extent and brutality of our parent star. solar activity area on the left a few times can swallow the whole Earth, and there still remains a place. Photographer successfully compared this phenomenon with the throwing of a stone into a pond: the outer layers of the Sun really behave like a fluid, which constantly twist and distort the intense magnetic strength.

7. The best among the craters, George Tarsodis, Greece

Second place in the category "Our Solar System"

The word "crater" was put into use in the XVII-th century Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. He brought it from the ancient Greek term "krater", indicating the vessel for mixing wine and water. Resulting from impacts of meteorites for more than a billion years, these bowl-shaped lunar depressions usually named after the scientists, artists and explorers. A peak in the center of the crater, there was, perhaps, when the crater rocks jumped up after it is formed.

8. Calcium Eruption By Stephen Ramsden, USA

A high score in the category "Our Solar System". The length of the solar emission is 1, 3 million kilometers.

"Calcium K" refers to a specific wavelength of violet light emitted by the calcium ions in extreme conditions, such as the atmosphere of the sun. Astronomers can get a certificate of extreme events, such as the huge emissions from the Sun's surface, but when taking still images in a very narrow range of colors.

9. A diamond and ruby, Tunsh Tezel, Turkey

A high score in the category "Our Solar System"

Many of the features of the Sun become visible only during a total solar eclipse, when the Moon blocks the bright solar disk. In the photo we see the outer atmosphere of the Sun, or the crown in a white mist. Closest to the surface layer was aspirated sun, known as chromosphere, there appears to glow red hydrogen. The photographer caught the moment when a tiny part of the solar disk shining between the mountains on the edge of the moon, creating an effect called the "diamond ring".

10. The Horsehead Nebula Bill Snyder, USA

The winner of the "Open Space"

Horsehead Nebula - is one of the most popular sites for filming in the night sky, but this image presents it in a whole new light. Instead of focusing solely on the dark silhouette of the nebula itself, the photographer pays attention to like fabric folded folds landscape of gas and dust in its grounds funnel tends to a bright star. This image extends our vision and gives a new understanding of familiar celestial objects.

11. The Helix Nebula, David Fitz-Henry, Australia

Second place in the category "Open Space"

The Helix Nebula, looking like a huge eye looking at us through the 700 light-years of space, this is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth, and the most studied of them. In this image, a luminous gas, which consists of a nebula, visible fine details, such as similar to the tadpole "comet nodes" that appear to move from the inner ring to the outside. "Head" of each such unit about the size comparable to our solar system.

12. California versus Pleiades, Rogelio Bernal Andreo, USA

A high score in the category of "Open Space"

The cluster of the Pleiades in the right side of this image, has long been known as the Seven Sisters, in fact, includes nearly a thousand stars that were formed about 100 million years ago. Pleiades - a perennial favorite of amateur astronomers and astrophotography but this unusual image shows the cluster in the broader context of its local environment, drifting through a chaotic region of dark dust. California Nebula, so named in honor of the American state - a cloud of glowing hydrogen gas in the left part of the photo.

Fragment 13. Veil nebula, J-P. Metsavanio Finland

A high score in the category of "Open Space"

The angular shape and bright color palette convey violent origin of this gas structure - this is what is left of the star that exploded more than 5,000 years ago. Smear is still expanding, and the entire nebula now holds 36 times more area than the full Moon.

14. At the feet of Orion, Marco Lorenzi, Italy

A high score in the category of "Open Space"

These photos remind us that in our galaxy there is a lot more likely than it seems at first glance, and that the space between the stars is rarely empty. Extremely long 18-hour endurance allows us to see billowing clouds of dust and gas, which are usually located in the shadow of its more famous neighbor to the upper part of the picture - the dazzling heart of Orion. Scattered bright blue stars light up the dust, which allows us to see the whole picture.

15. The Horsehead Nebula, Shishir and Shashank Dolakov - 15 years, USA

The winners of the contest "Young astrophotographer year"

This is an excellent photo Horsehead Nebula. It clearly shows the well-known red glow in the background horse head - it glows, hydrogen gas, ionized neighboring stars. The image focuses on the highly concentrated cloud of dust in the silhouette of a horse's head. It is silhouetted against the red glow because the nebula is blocking the path of light rays that are trying to break through it.

16. Coastal stairs, Chris Murphy, New Zealand

Winner Sir Patrick Moore Award for Best Newcomer

It seems that this gloomy scene seeks to convey the message of "deep time", as each layer of rocks are in the foreground - a record of thousands of years of geological history. Meanwhile, in the sky, time and space are inextricably intertwined, as the light of stars take decades, centuries and even millennia, to get us through a huge chasm of space.

17. The hybrid solar eclipse 2, Eugene Kamenev, Germany

The winner of the "People and space"

This is a rare example of a hybrid solar eclipse that began at dawn over the western Atlantic, where the moon does not completely blocking the sun, leaving a bright ring of light around. When the Moon's shadow moved across the ocean to the east, the eclipse was total, and the sun was not visible at all. By the time when the eclipse reached Kenya, the sun came out again because of the moon, having a crescent shape at sunset.