Review of January Social: Astronomy Photographer of the Year
This is a beautiful jewel box of an exhibition that opens to reveal whole galaxies. It is contained in just four small rooms but each image takes you into a vast world. From Plato’s crater on the moon – over 100 km across, to the Sombrero galaxy – home to an estimated 100 billion stars, each one blows your mind.
The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition winners and shortlists are shown each year at the National Maritime Museum. There are eight categories which spin us from close-ups of familiar faces like the sun and moon to far away nebulae and stars. I particularly enjoyed seeing photos of the sun’s surface, golden and shaggy as in Stuart Green’s photo, something I had never seen before.
There are ethereal images of aurora, geometric designs made by stars on time-lapse, and landscapes that juxtapose the places where we live on earth with the vastness of the Milky Way – where we also live. There are skyscapes of cloud exploding into glorious colour and light. Something for everyone. And if you are interested in photography too, well! The technical skill behind these images is also mind-blowing.
The exhibition is open till 13 August; more information here.
