Chinese photographer Tianhong Li was recognised by the 2018 Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition as “best newcomer” for this captivating view of the Milky Way above Mingantu, China, in September 2017. The photo highlights the core of the Milky Way on the horizon and the “gradual curtain call of Scorpio heralding the upward trend of Orion in the sky,” according to the Insight caption. “Meanwhile the season of bright shooting stars quietly arrived. The image is stitched together from a total of twenty pictures.”
Equipment: Nikon D810A camera, 35-mm f/2 lens; sky: ISO 1250, 16 x 60-second exposures, total 16 pictures; ground: ISO 640, 4 x 120-second exposures, total 4 pictures.
