Over the coming weeks we will feature, in no particular order, each of the final 16 selected images and winners will be announced by Royal Museums Greenwich on 17 September. The winning images are to be showcased at the Royal Observatory Greenwich in an exhibition opening 18 September.
New stars are formed in the undulating clouds of M8, also commonly referred to as the Lagoon Nebula. This image by Ivan Eder is one of the shortlisted images in this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
Australian astronomer John Seach discovered a nova in Sagittarius on March 15th that’s still an easy binocular object for Southern Hemisphere observers and a challenge worth attempting in the dawn twilight of southern counties UK.
This colourful bubble is a planetary nebula called NGC 6818, also known as the Little Gem Nebula, discovered by William Herschel in 1787. It is located in the constellation of Sagittarius, roughly 6,000 light-years away from us. The rich glow of the cloud is just over half a light-year across.