Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition 2012

Large eruptions blasting from the sun's exterior and star covered skies on top of cities are merely the icing on the cake for the spectacular images in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012 competition.

Situated within Greenwich, UK, through the Royal Observatory, the competition is at this point in the 4th calendar year and goes on to draw in a record amount of entries through both expert and recreational photographers.

The winners are going to be publicised on September 19th 2012 and shall be included from the 20th October 2012 in an event at the widely known Royal Observatory close to London.

A view of the Milky way from Uludag National Park, Turkey taken from  www.rediff.com

Every candidate to the contest ended up being put forward to a Flickr group and the competition's judges comprised of Sir Patrick Moore (from the BBC’s 'The Sky at Night'), Dan Holdsworth (a well-known photographer) and the Dr. Marek Kukula (a public astronomer of the Royal Observatory).

Challengers from all around the entire world were shortlisted in this specific magnificent selection that had shots containing astonishing sights of the moon, sun and stars.

Destinations weren't only constrained to the Earth, with photographers catching points of interest from all over the solar-system.

I'll keep you updated with what’s happening with the competition in weeks to come so watch this space!