5 January 2026: Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, announces the dates for the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 18 competition – the annual search for the most inspiring images of our cosmos.

The internationally acclaimed competition is now in its eighteenth year and is open to all ages and abilities across the globe. Entrants have from Monday 5 January 2026 until midday on Monday 2 March 2026 to submit their work. Up to ten images can be entered into various categories via www.rmg.co.uk/astrocomp (entry fees apply, for more information check the competition rules).

100 breathtaking images, including all the winners, runners-up and highly commended entries, from the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 18 competition will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum from September 2026. The competition has eight main categories: 

  • Skyscapes: Landscape and cityscape images of twilight and the night sky featuring the Milky Way, star trails, meteor showers, comets, conjunctions, constellation rises, halos and noctilucent clouds alongside elements of earthly scenery
  • Aurorae: Photographs featuring the Northern and Southern Lights
  • People and Space: Photographs of the night sky including people or a human-interest element
  • Our Sun: Solar images including solar eclipses and transits
  • Our Moon: Lunar images including lunar eclipses and occultations of planets
  • Planets, Comets and Asteroids: Everything else in our Solar System, including planets and their satellites, comets, asteroids and other forms of zodiacal debris
  • Stars and Nebulae: Deep-space objects within the Milky Way galaxy, including stars, star clusters, supernova remnants, nebulae and other intergalactic phenomena
  • Galaxies: Deep-space objects beyond the Milky Way, including galaxies, galaxy clusters and stellar associations

As well as the main categories, ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year includes the ZWO Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, which is open to budding astronomers under the age of 16, and two special prizes,Best Newcomer and the Annie Maunder Open Category. 

The Best Newcomer prize is open to amateur photographers who have taken up astrophotography in the past year and have not entered an image to the competition previously. The Annie Maunder Open Category recognises the best photo processed using any form of astronomical data, bringing together the worlds of the arts, astronomy and astrophotography. The prize allows photographers to submit entries making use of their own astrophotography, as well as publicly available data. This category encourages innovative concepts and creative processing and entrants may use any software, analogue or digital manipulation, or AI processing to produce their image but AI-generated data or any other artificial data are not eligible. Visit rmg.co.uk/annie-maunder-open-category to learn more about the changes to the prize. 

Entries to the competition must be submitted by 2 March 2026, and the winning images will be showcased in the annual exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, opening in September 2026. 

Photographers can enter online by visiting apy.rmg.co.uk. Each entrant may submit up to ten images to the competition.

Sam Wen, Founder and CEO of ZWO said, ‘We are deeply honoured to continue our sponsorship of ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year, a celebration of those who turn the night sky into art. Each new edition reminds us how boundless human imagination can be. We cannot wait to see the visions photographers will share this year — images that reveal distant galaxies, quiet moonlit landscapes, and moments of wonder only the night can offer. We encourage everyone to take part, to lift their gaze, and to let the universe speak through their lenses.’

 

Notes to editors 

1. The winners of Royal Observatory Greenwich’s ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 18 will be announced at an award ceremony in September 2026. The winning photographs will be exhibited at the National Maritime Museum alongside a selection of shortlisted images.

2. The overall winner will receive £10,000. Winners of all other categories and the photographer named winner in the ZWO Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition will receive £1,500. There are also prizes for runners-up (£500) and highly commended (£250) entries. The special prize winners will receive £750. All the winning entrants will receive a one-year subscription to BBC Sky at Night Magazine. 

3. Royal Observatory Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian and one of the most important historic scientific sites in the world. Since its founding in 1675, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich has been at the centre of the measurement of time and space and visitors today can still stand on the historic Prime Meridian line. The Observatory galleries and Peter Harrison Planetarium help unravel the extraordinary phenomena of time, space and astronomy. In 2018, the Royal Observatory acquired the Annie Maunder Astrographic Telescope (AMAT), the first new telescope to be installed in Greenwich in over 60 years, marking a new era for the world-famous site and restoring its status as a working observatory.

The Royal Observatory is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, which also incorporates the National Maritime Museum, the Queen’s House and Cutty Sark. This unique collection of museums and heritage buildings, which form a key part of the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site, welcomes over 2.5 million British and international visitors a year and is also a major centre of education and research. The mission of Royal Museums Greenwich is to enrich people’s understanding of the sea, the exploration of space and Britain’s role in world history. For more information visit rmg.co.uk.

4. ZWO is a global leader in astrophotography solutions, recognized for advancing CMOS camera technology, smart telescope systems, and integrated imaging workflows. Founded in 2011, the company develops reliable, purpose built tools used by observatories, research institutions, and astrophotographers worldwide. Its ASI camera series and ASIAIR control platform have become industry standards, supporting deep sky and planetary imaging with consistent performance and an ecosystem designed for seamless operation. By focusing on equipment that works dependably and intuitively, ZWO helps remove many of the barriers that often stand between users and the night sky, making the process of connecting with the cosmos more straightforward and rewarding. Through ongoing development and collaboration with the astronomy community, ZWO continues to shape the future of astrophotography in both amateur and professional astronomy. For more information, visit zwoastro.com.

5. BBC Sky at Night Magazine is Britain’s best-selling astronomy magazine, with a combined print and digital monthly circulation of 31,289. skyatnightmagazine.com has 700,000 visits a month and reaches 110,000 organic social media followers through Facebook, X and Instagram. The magazine is available monthly through its app (available on Apple App Store and Google Play), on Apple News, on Zinio and in print, and is media partner of the annual ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by Royal Observatory Greenwich. With writing from the world’s leading astronomers and science communicators, BBC Sky at Night Magazine complements one of the world’s longest running TV programmes, BBC Four’s The Sky at Night, and is published by Our Media under licence from BBC Worldwide.

6. Royal Observatory Greenwich, in partnership with Collins, will be publishing Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Collection 15 in September 2026, RRP £30.00. It is the official publication of the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition and will showcase breathtaking images of space and the night sky from the 2026 competition shortlist. Photographs will be accompanied by full details, including each photographer’s information, location where photographs were taken and technical specifications.

Last year’s publication is still available to buy: Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Collection 14 / RRP £30.00 / Hardback / Published September 2025 / Royal Museums Greenwich online shop. For further information or to request review copies please contact: Catherine Howe/ Catherine.Howe@harpercollins.co.uk/ 020 8307 4048. 

-ends-

 

Media interviews:

The Modern Astronomy team at Royal Observatory Greenwich is dedicated to the public understanding of science and its experts are available to give radio and TV interviews on astronomy – at the historic Observatory site or in the studio. 

The Royal Observatory offers a short notice service to media stations looking for comment or interviews on any aspect of modern astronomy – discussing new discoveries and space missions, telling people what to look for in this month’s night sky, or talking about old favourites like black holes, whether there is life beyond Earth and the origins of the Universe.

 

For further information or images, please contact:

Press Office Tel: 020 8312 6790/6667/6545 

or Email: press@rmg.co.uk