Galaxies 2026

Picture of a lenticular galaxy with orange strands intertwining

Category winner

NGC 4753: A Symphony of Dust Lanes in Virgo by 智鹏严 and Xinran Li

"This deep-sky image reveals a complex lenticular galaxy approximately 60 million light years away in the constellation Virgo," they say.

"This image was acquired under the pristine skies of Chile, with more than 10 hours of integration to resolve the intricate dust structures that are often obscured in other images."

Taken in El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Chile, 6 March 2025

Runner-up

M104: Pure Elegance by Patrick Winkler

"M104, the iconic Sombrero Galaxy, is captured here nearly edge-on," Patrick explains.

"Its striking appearance is caused by a central bulge that is sharply divided by a dense, dark dust lane that arcs across the galaxy’s disc, creating the illusion of a cosmic hat suspended in space."

Taken in Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, Windhoek Rural, Namibia, 28–29 March and 24–28 April 2025

Large Magellanic Cloud complete with dust emissions and orange and blue star clusters

Highly commended

Wildflowers Across a Neighbouring Galaxy: The Large Magellanic Cloud by Shaoyu Zhang

"I created a four-panel, 340-megapixel mosaic of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to treat it as a landscape, not a single target," Shaoyu says.

"The ‘wildflowers’ are emission nebulae and remnants – cavities, shells and sharp fronts scattered across the galaxy’s disc that narrowband layers make visible."

Taken in Deep Sky Chile Observatory, Camino del Observatorio, Río Hurtado, Chile, 9–20, 22–25 March 2024, 15, 18–19, 22–25, 27–29 September and 19 October 2025