Winners of astrophotography contest announced in Britain — Live Science
In the United Kingdom, the Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the winners of the 18th ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The main prize went to astrophotographer Ali Al-Obaidli for his work “The Quiet Predator,” featuring the Shark Nebula, also known as LDN 1235. As Live Science reports, the nebula, which resembles the silhouette of a shark, is located about 650 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus.
The competition’s main photograph
Ali Al-Obaidli captured the winning image in Kuwait’s Jahra Governorate over two days in August 2025. He used an Askar 140 APO telescope, a Sky-Watcher EQ8-R mount and a ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera.
The author received £10,000. According to him, the image of a marine predator above the Kuwaiti desert seemed poetic to him and combines his love for the Universe and the deserts of his ancestors.
Category winners
In the aurora category, “The Crown” by Bulgarian author Radoslav Sviretsov won. He captured a powerful northern lights display above a small church between Keflavik and Reykjavik in Iceland.
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In the “Our Moon” category, Czech photographer Petr Horálek won with “Venusian Pearl on the Moon.” The image was taken on September 19, 2025, during the occultation of Venus by the Moon, which was visible from certain locations on Earth. In the photograph, Venus begins to disappear behind the lunar crescent and resembles a bright pearl on its edge.
Portuguese photographer Miguel Claro won the “Our Sun” category with an image of active region 4122. The image of the Sun’s photosphere shows convective cells — areas of superheated gas or plasma — and bright spots between them.
Other recognized works include “Saturnian Equinox” by Britain’s Tom Williams, showing Saturn’s rings edge-on; “Botswana Star Trail” by Italian Stefano Pellegrini, featuring baobab trees in Nxai Pan, Botswana; and an image of the galaxy NGC 4753 by Chinese authors Zhipeng Yan and Xinran Li.
The works of the overall winner and the ten category winners will be displayed at the National Maritime Museum in London from September 18.
