Summary
- 31 awarded images in Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026
- Ali Alobaidly is Overall Winner with “The Quiet Predator”
- Nikolaos Strimpoulis wins Young Photographer of the Year with “Mineral Moon”
- The exhibition is hosted at London's National Maritime Museum
- Stars & Nebulae
- Aurorae
- Our Moon
- Our Sun
- People and Space
- Planets, Comets and Asteroids
- Skyscapes
- Galaxies
- ZWO Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year
- The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer
- The Annie Maunder Open Category
- Prizes and the London exhibition
- What we think
- Frequently asked questions
Ali Alobaidly of Kuwait is the overall winner of ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026 with “The Quiet Predator”, while 15-year-old Nikolaos Strimpoulis of Greece won Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year with “Mineral Moon”.
The 18th edition of the Royal Observatory Greenwich competition recognized 31 awarded entries. The eight main categories each include a Winner, Runner-Up and Highly Commended image, alongside the Young Competition and two special prizes. Almost 4,000 images were submitted by 769 photographers from 66 countries.
“The Quiet Predator” depicts the Shark Nebula (LDN 1235), a dark nebula roughly 650 light years away in Cepheus. The image earned Ali Alobaidly both the Stars & Nebulae category win and the £10,000 overall prize.
Stars & Nebulae
Overall Winner and Category Winner: “The Quiet Predator” — Ali Alobaidly
Runner-Up: “Beyond the Wormhole” — Kfir Simon
Highly Commended: “Abell 85” — Humbert Cédric
Aurorae
Winner: “The Crown” — Radoslav Sviretsov
Runner-Up: “Aurora Between Two Continents” — Phil Halper
Highly Commended: “On the Edge of Glory” — MaryBeth Kiczenski
Our Moon
Winner: “Venusian Pearl on the Moon” — Petr Horálek
Runner-Up: “Plato and Vallis Alpes” — Raul Cantemir
Highly Commended: “Pythagoras Crater” — Tom Williams
Our Sun
Winner: “Active Region 4122” — Miguel Claro
Runner-Up: “Anatomy of the Chromosphere” — Peter Ward
Highly Commended: “Moody Partial Solar Eclipse” — James McBeath
People and Space
Winner: “A Message from the Ancients” — Max Inwood
Runner-Up: “Capture the Night” — Dan Zafra
Highly Commended: “Golden Moonrise Over Seattle” — AJ Smadi
Planets, Comets and Asteroids
Winner: “Saturnian Equinox” — Tom Williams
Runner-Up: “The Uranian System” — Tom Williams
Highly Commended: “Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), 28 October” — Julien DeWinter and Landon Boehm
Skyscapes
Winner: “Botswana Star Trail” — Stefano Pellegrini
Runner-Up: “Cosmic Canyon” — Tom Rae
Highly Commended: “I Hear the Stars” — João Yordanov Serralheiro
Galaxies
Winner: “NGC 4753: A Symphony of Dust Lanes in Virgo” — 智鹏 严 (Zhipeng Yan) and Xinran Li
Runner-Up: “M104: Pure Elegance” — Patrick Winkler
Highly Commended: “Wildflowers Across a Neighbouring Galaxy: The Large Magellanic Cloud” — Shaoyu Zhang
ZWO Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year
The Greek distinction stands out in this category: 15-year-old Nikolaos Strimpoulis won with “Mineral Moon”, a close-up lunar image emphasizing subtle colour differences between the maria and brighter highlands.
Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026 and Category Winner: “Mineral Moon” — Nikolaos Strimpoulis
Runner-Up: “M20: The Trifid Nebula” — Kaiyan Ma
Highly Commended: “Celestial Enchantress” — 与晨 林 (Yuchen Lin)
Highly Commended: “A Sphere of Opposites” — Shamiqh Gajdhar
Highly Commended: “The Heart Nebula” — Benjamin and Joshua Lawler
The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer
Winner: “M1: Echoes of an Ancient Explosion” — Haocheng Zhu
The Annie Maunder Open Category
Winner: “Reverse Astronomy: Mother” — Paweł Paweł
Prizes and the London exhibition
The Overall Winner receives £10,000. Other category winners and the Young Competition winner receive £1,500, runners-up £500, highly commended entrants £250 and special prize winners £750. All prize-winners also receive a one-year subscription to BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
The winning images are on display at the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in London, which opened on 18 September 2026. The exhibition features 100 photographs from this year’s competition.
What we think
This year’s selection demonstrates the breadth of contemporary astrophotography, spanning deep-sky work, planetary imaging, the Moon, the Sun, aurorae, landscapes and creative processing of astronomical data. For Greek readers, Nikolaos Strimpoulis’ Young Competition victory is a particularly notable distinction.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026?
Ali Alobaidly of Kuwait, for “The Quiet Predator”, his image of the Shark Nebula.
Is there a Greek winner?
Yes. Fifteen-year-old Nikolaos Strimpoulis won ZWO Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026 with “Mineral Moon”.
How many awarded images are presented?
There are 31 different awarded images across the main categories, Young Competition and two special prizes.
Where are the photographs exhibited?
At the National Maritime Museum in London as part of the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition.
