The spectacular winning images of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2020

The Moon, the Andromeda galaxy, the Dolphin Nebula... the snapshots that have been submitted to the contest amaze with their beauty .

We are stardust that thinks about the stars... stated the astrophysicist and popularizer Carl Sagan. Without a shadow of a doubt, if you could see the winning images from the 12th edition of the 2020 Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest, where more than 5,000 snapshots have been submitted, you would know that his statement was absolutely correct.

Nicolas Lefaudeux, winner of the prestigious contest.

The winner has been the French photographer Nicolas Lefaudeux, who won the prize (and who will also exhibit his work at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, in the greater London area, from October 23) for a unique perspective of our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, since using the tilt-shift effect creates the illusion "that it is within our reach", something "truly magical", in the words of Ed Robinson, competition judge.

A very competitive edition with great photographs

But Lefaudeux's photography is not the only one that is a real visual joy: the signals that warn of the future explosion of the Dolphin Nebula (whose technical name is Sh2-308); the incredible skies full of northern lights or polar stratospheric clouds of Germany or Lapland; the distance between the Moon and Jupiter; different eclipses; the centers of the California nebulae and NGC 3576; the galaxy NGC 3628 and its spectacular “line of dust”; the double star Albireo “imprisoned” by the trails of moving satellites”… A real pleasure to behold.