The UK’s Royal Observatory Greenwich has chosen the winners of its 2018 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, which honors photography of the cosmos across multiple categories, such as “People and Space,” “Aurorae,” and “Galaxies.” Many of the winners showcase sweeping vistas with millions of stars, but some of the most stunning images focus on the smaller details of the sun and Moon. Two of the winners captured the total solar eclipse that could be seen from the US in August 2017.
French photographer Nicolas Lefaudeux won the “Our Sun” category with an image shot in Oregon that shows the corona of the sun, extending from behind the Moon, joined on the left by the blue star Regulus and on the far right side of the image, Mars.
Australian photographer Peter Ward saw the eclipse in Utah and used several exposures to create a composite image that shows the Moon lit by light reflecting off of Earth.
Other winning images in the “Our Sun and “Our Moon” categories also show the sun and Moon in stunning detail:
