Best Night-Sky Pictures of 2013 Named

The Lights of Salzburg

Photograph courtesy Andreas Max Böckle, TWAN

Even with the dazzling lights of Salzburg, Austria, shining in the valley, a blanket of cold fog acts as a light-pollution filter, allowing the stars above the surrounding mountain range to sparkle in this February picture.

And despite the glow of a near full moon, the wintertime constellations of Orion and Taurus and the planet Jupiter burn brightly too.

"The City of Salzburg and its light pollution causes me to travel about an hour for fairly good star shooting conditions, and I always have to handle that in my shots," said photographer Andreas Max Böckle.

This photo won top honors in the "Against the Lights" category, which recognizes images that show "how important and amazing the starry sky is and how it affects our lives and also how bad the problem of light pollution has become," says Tafreshi.

Published May 14, 2013

Land Meets Sky

Photograph courtesy Luc Perrot, TWAN

Heaven and Earth meet in this mystical portrait of the Milky Way appearing to pour down into the Indian Ocean off the rocky coast of Réunion Island.

The central bulge of our home galaxy—the downtown core of the Milky Way some 30,000 light-years away from Earth—is partially obscured by dark gas and dust in a spiral arm.

"This night, the swell was particularly strong and I spent a few minutes behind the security fence, but the desire was too intense to find a more striking point of view so I bypassed the barrier and I headed towards the entrance of the Gouffre until I got this magnificent perspective," said photographer Luc Perrot.

Said Tafreshi: "This winning image by Luc Perrot has captured a scene of pure nature with no touch of our modern world, either in the sky or on the land."

Published May 14, 2013

Encroaching Light Pollution

Photograph courtesy Zachary Grether, TWAN

A lone tree appears to stand guard next to Canyon Lake, Arizona, under a canopy of stars in this early morning portrait created by Zach Grether.

The dome of artificial light coming from the nearby small town of Globe, Arizona, combined with the bright lights of the Canyon Lake Marina are considered localized light pollution that is dim enough to let most of the starlight be visible. However, the lights emanating from the large city of Phoenix nearly 30 miles away washes out all but the brightest stars.

"The night sky is an essential part of our nature, and humans have been inspired by the starry sky for millennia," says Tafreshi. "But now two-thirds of the population live under light-polluted skies [that are] not dark enough to see the Milky Way."

Published May 14, 2013

Falling Star

Photograph courtesy Shannon Bileski, TWAN

Like a flying javelin, a bright meteor appears to pierce the ghostly green glows of an aurora while diving down into the frozen waters off Patricia Beach in Manitoba, Canada.

Shannon Bileski was at the right place and the right time to snap this magical photo during a late night geomagnetic storm on March 29. "There were bright bursts of green, which matched the green aurora dancing around us!" she said.

Published May 14, 2013

Night Landscape

Photograph courtesy Norbert Span, TWAN

As part of the summer solstice celebrations, great bonfires stud the ridges of the Kalkkögel Mountains near Tyrol, Austria, in this night landscape shot taken last June.

For hundreds of years, the local people in the Alps have celebrated the summer solstice with great fires on the mountain ridges, explains photographer Norbert Span.

"We were lucky, because on the weekend close to the summer solstice, the weather was clear, which is usually not the case," Span adds.

Published May 14, 2013

Green Auroras

Photograph courtesy Fredrik Broms, TWAN

A dazzling green aurora spreads out over the entire overhead sky while the moon lights up a slope of mountain birches in Grøtfjord in northern Norway.

"Starting nightscape photography is fast and easy using off-the-shelf digital SLR cameras," says Tafreshi.

"But for those who aim for serious landscape astrophotos, there are challenges too: going to bizarre locations, planning carefully to be in the right place at the right time, and making the effort to learn some practical astronomy," he says.

Published May 14, 2013

Bridge to the Stars

Photograph courtesy Zachary Grether, TWAN

In this photo of what looks like a cosmic bridge to the stars, the Milky Way is on grand display behind Roosevelt Lake Bridge in Arizona. Many faint stars invisible to the naked eye are captured in this long-exposure shot, despite the bright orange glow from the old mining town of Globe, Arizona, lighting up a bank of low-hanging clouds.

"The selected images are those most effective in impressing [the] public on both how important and delicate the starry sky is as an affecting part of our nature, and also how bad the problem of light pollution has become," said Tafreshi in a press release.

"Light pollution (excessive light that scatters to the sky instead of illuminating the ground) not only is a major waste of energy, it also obscures the stars, interferes with astronomical observatories and, like any other form of pollution, disrupts ecosystems and has adverse health effects."

Published May 14, 2013

Disappearing Sun

Photograph courtesy Geoff Sims, TWAN

Fleeting darkness blankets the Australian outback, as the sun appears blotted out by a total solar eclipse above Pormpuraaw, Queensland, Australia, last November.

"From this stunning location, we were able to observe the moon's umbral shadow cone of this low-altitude eclipse race across the sky, above a quintessential Australian outback locale," says photographer Geoff Sims.

During a solar eclipse, as the moon moves between Earth and the sun, the natural satellite's shadow is cast onto our planet. During the eclipse, only sky-watchers within the moon's hundred-mile-wide (160-kilometers-wide) shadow saw the sun completely "disappear."

This shot captured the judges' attention because it "creates a short, bizarre nightscape, and the phenomenon strongly connects astronomy and nature," says Tafreshi.

Published May 14, 2013

Night Lights

Photograph courtesy Rick Whitacre, TWAN

A menagerie of stars appear to wheel around the North Star above San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in this long-exposure photo by Rick Whitacre.

"Despite the bright lights of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco, our camera sensors still managed to record many of the brighter stars," says Whitacre.

"Our own eyes are not as fortunate, as many of these stars aren't readily seen due to the bright glow from the city," he says.

(Get tips for photographing the night sky.)

Published May 14, 2013

See Last Year's Winners

Photograph courtesy Jia Hao, TWAN

Published May 14, 2013