Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2019 - gallery
Lunar winner Laszlo Francsics lands £10,000 prize
Photographer Laszlo Francsics has won the Royal Observatory’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year award.
The Hungarian will receive a £10,000 prize and his winning photograph will take pride of place in the exhibition of photographs at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.
His entry is a creative and artistic composition of the 35 phases of the total lunar eclipse, taken in January this year.
Competition judge Ed Robinson, himself an award-winning photographer, said: “For a single multiple-exposure image to capture this event with such positional precision, creative innovation and beauty is nothing short of masterful.
“In a year that celebrates 50 years since the first lunar landings it is fitting that this year’s overall winning image captures such a dynamic and captivating view of our Moon. A worthy winner indeed.”
Winning entries from other categories include a panoramic photo of the Aurora Borealis over the Lofoten Islands in Norway, a dog surrounded by Mars, Saturn and the Milky Way, and a deep sky image of the Rosette Nebula, a flower-shaped cloud of dust and gas 5,000 light-years from Earth.
Click on the gallery above for the winning images and captions from the Royal Observatory.