Astronomy Photographer Of The Year 2016 – The Shortlist

A brilliant moon is reflected in the water of Paraty Bay, Brazil. (Rafael Defavari)

Here are some of the brilliant photos that are shortlisted for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016.

A tiny mountain hut sit below the snow-capped peaks of Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand. (Lee Cook)

The Northern Lights arch over the sea in New Zealand. (Stephen Voss)

The Milky Way burns in the sky between two jutting rocks on Pfeiffer State Beach, near Big Sur, California. (Rick Whitacre)

Light pollution from a fishing village blurs the edges of the Milky Away as it glows over Batu Pahat, Malaysia. (Yuyun Wang)

The Perseid Meteor Shower shoots across the sky in the early hours. This composite image features roughly 65 meteors captured by the photographer between 12:30am and 4:30am. (Brad Goldpaint)

The glow from a stargazer’s headlamp blends into the light of the Milky Way, arching over a mountain peak. (Nicholas Roemmelt)

The International Space Station pierces a path across concentric star trails as they spin over the trees in Harrogate, South Australia. (Scott Carnie-Bronca)

New stars are formed in the clouds of M8, also known as the Lagoon Nebula, situated some 5,000 light years from our planet. (Ivan Eder)

This cartoon-esque image shows a brightly coloured galaxy some 5,000 light years away from Earth as a superwind rips through it. (Ivan Eder)

The shadow of Manua Kea, the highest peak in Hawaii, is projected by the rising sun over the volcano, Hualalai, whilst a full moan sits in the sky above. (Sean Goebel)

A royal spoonbill perches on the forked branch of a tree, lit from behind by a glowing moon. (Andrew Caldwell)

The Northern Lights swish into the shape of a bird over a glassy lake in Olderdalen, Norway. (Jan R Olsen)

The tangled filaments of Pickering’s Triangle – a supernova remnant – trail through the night sky in megawatt colour. (Bob Franke)

The rusted swirls of the iron sculpture ‘Seven Magic Points’ in Brattebergan, Norway mirror the rippling aurora above. (Rune Engebø)

Star trails swirl across the New Zealand sky in this long-exposure shot taken from Sefton Bivouac, the oldest hut in Mount Cook National Park. (Lee Cook)