Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011 – the solar selection

Last month I attended the Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards, held at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, with fellow Solar Stormwatch forum moderator ElisabethB (Els) and fellow Moon Zoo forum moderator Geoff. We were treated to a preview of the shortlisted photos in the planetarium. Huge images were projected onto the planetarium dome as Olivia Johnson from the ROG told us about each one to a background of spacey soothing music. No chance of falling asleep though as the images were so stunning!
The overall winner was an amazing photo of Jupiter, Io and Ganymede by Damian Peach showing detail on the two moons  – well worth pouring over in high resolution. We were pleased to see some great solar astrophotos make the final list this year. In particular Dani Caxete’s photo of the ISS crossing the Sun was one of our favourites as this required nerves of steel to click the shutter at the precise moment.
Here’s Geoff, Els and me getting into the swing.

Here are the solar related photos that made it through to the finals. While not strictly images of the Sun the aurora photos couldn’t have been taken without it – and are beautiful to look at – so I’ve included them!
“Earth and Space” category runners up:
“Our Solar System” category runners up:
And here are some that didn’t make the final:
More photos and information on the APOTY website and the Flickr APOTY pool.

Categories: Jules, Royal Observatory, Uncategorized
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