Mars-set. Winner, Our Moon. An occultation of Mars that took place on December 8, 2022. During the occultation, the moon passed in front of the planet Mars, allowing the astrophotographer to capture both objects together. The image shows Mars behind the moon’s southern side in impressive detail. #

The Running Chicken Nebula. Winner, Young. The Running Chicken Nebula, IC2944, is in the constellation of Centaurus, 6,000 light-years away from Earth. Embedded in the nebula’s glowing gas, the star cluster Collinder 249 is visible. #

Circle of Light. Runner-Up, Aurorae. A stunning photograph of a vivid aurora over Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten Islands, Norway. The mountain in the background is Hustinden, which the aurora appears to encircle. #

The Great Solar Flare. Highly Commended, Our Sun. The sun, photographed moving toward its maximum cycle. A large solar flare around 700,000 km long erupts to the left of the image. #

Celestial Equator Above First World War Trench Memorial. Runner-Up, Skyscapes. Star trails above the preserved First World War trenches in Canadian National Vimy Memorial Park, northern France. In the photo, taken over five hours, the camera captured the rotation of the sky, revealing the colorful stars. #

A Visit to Tycho. Runner-up, People & Space. In this photo, the International Space Station has been captured in alignment with the moon's Tycho Crater. Although actually 1,000 times closer to Earth than the moon, this perspective makes it seem like the ISS is in fact orbiting our natural satellite. McCarthy traveled to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona to find the perfect position. #

Grand Cosmic Fireworks. Winner, Skyscapes. Sprites are an extremely rare phenomenon of atmospheric luminescence that appear like fireworks. An took this photograph from the highest ridge of the Himalaya mountains. #

Jupiter Close to Opposition. Runner-up, Planets, Comets & Asteroids. An image of Jupiter 30 minutes after it crossed the meridian. The Great Red Spot and many details of the turbulent atmosphere, primarily composed of hydrogen and helium gas, are clearly visible, including several smaller storms. #

LDN 1448 et al. Runner-up, Stars & Nebulae. A photograph of LDN 1448, which is close to the more spectacular and more often photographed NGC 1333. Quintile chose to photograph the lesser known molecular cloud to explore the fascinating dust in this part of the sky. #

The Eyes Galaxies. Runner-Up, Galaxies. The Eyes Galaxies (NGC 4438) are famous interacting galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. They’re small and require a large telescope to reveal their many components, such as the dust in the middle and the tiny flares on the left and right. Those tiny details have rarely been revealed in other amateur images. #

Sundown on the Terminator. Runner-Up, Our Moon. Plato Crater is an almost perfectly circular crater that measures 109 km in diameter. This photograph was taken during a local lunar sunset in the last quarter, when approximately half of the moon’s face is visible from Earth. The image captures dramatic shadows moving across the moon. #

Close Encounters of the Haslingden Kind. Highly Commended, People & Space. Haslingden’s Halo is an 18-meter-in-diameter sculpture in the hills of Lancashire, England. McGuinness took inspiration from a movie poster for Close Encounters of the Third Kind to create her image. More than 150 images, taken over an hour and with exposures of 25 seconds each, were combined to show the apparent rotation of stars around Polaris. #

The Dark Wolf—Fenrir. Highly Commended, Stars & Nebulae. This image shows a thick, dark molecular cloud in the shape of a wolf, known as the Wolf Nebula or Fenrir Nebula. Baguley chose a starless image to emphasize the beautiful red background, which is a dense backdrop of hydrogen gas. #