'Exceptional' eclipse image and stunning 'Dolphin Head nebula' among 2024's Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners

A spectacular image of sunlight streaming through mountains on the moon during a solar eclipse has been crowned this year’s grand prize winner in the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition hosted by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in the U.K.

But the winning images in other categories were just as impressive, including stunning photographs of the Dolphin Head nebula and a backlit, worm-like galaxy.

The overall winner of the competition, Ryan Imperio , took the striking eclipse image on Oct. 14, 2023 in Odessa, Texas. The image, titled "Distorted Shadows of the Moon's Surface Created by an Annular Eclipse," features a sequence of continuous eclipse shots that captured shadows in the ring patterns, known as Baily's beads .

Baily's beads appear because the surface of the moon is peppered with mounds, valleys and craters, meaning sunlight is broken up as it shines around the moon during an eclipse. These visible breaks in sunlight are rare, only occurring as the moon enters or exits an eclipse, and it takes immense precision to capture them, according to a statement shared with Live Science.

"This is an impressive dissection of the fleeting few seconds during the visibility of the Baily's beads," Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn , a meteorologist and judge in the competition, said in the statement. "It's exceptional work deserving of high recognition."

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The Royal Observatory, Greenwich received around 3,500 image entries, from which a panel of judges selected winners in 11 categories.

In the Galaxies category, the judges chose an image of Centaurus A, a galaxy also known as NGC 5128, surrounded by powerful jets of radiation and particles traveling close to the speed of light. The image, captured by Bence Tóth and Péter Feltóti from Hungary, shows the galaxy in a worm-like shape. Centaurus A is only visible from the Southern Hemisphere and low northern latitudes, so the photographers traveled to Namibia to capture the image in June 2023, according to the statement.

A mesmerizing image of the Dolphin Head Nebula, showing both the main body of the nebula and background stellar wind, won the Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer. Xin Feng and Miao Gong captured the image over a period of 10 days in China's Sichuan province in January before processing the image.

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For the Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation, the panel chose a multicolored picture of Earth created using satellite data. Land masses, oceans and atmospheric features appear red, green and blue in this image by Sergio Díaz Ruiz from Spain.

To view the full list of this year's contest winners, head over to the Royal Museums Greenwhich's Astronomy Photographer of the Year homepage .