Click here to view the gallery of photos from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013 exhibition

The seven finalists in the competition are thrillingly projected in the Planetarium and hung on a wall and all 24 short-listed winners, from more than 1,000 contestants, are presented in light-boxes incongruously small for such epic subjects.

The overall winner, Australias Mark Gee, presents Guiding Lights to the Stars as a cinematic panorama of a New Zealand seashore lit by the night sky. Digitally stitched together in panels, the contents include a tiny moon, smudgy Magellanic clouds hovering over the Milky Way and a glowing lighthouse, coalesced in the broad story. Ben Canaless similarly epic construction, Hi. Hello, is in contrast, an empty snowscape where a monk stares at the skys chimney of smoke holding millions of stars.

Many images have a painting feel: Frank Bromss Green Energy is a swirling dayglo vortex of an Aurora Borealis; Lszl Francsicss The Trapezium Cluster and surrounding Nebulae, involves dust clouds reflecting the colours of exploding gases and resembling Turners skies in their rich blue and fuschia tones. The exhibition's invitation to "Become an Astro Photographer" and use a robotic telescope to photograph a chosen image, includes receiving it by email; irresistible.

Until February 23, 2014 (rmg.co.uk, 020 8858 422)

Continued here:

Astronomy Photographer of the Year, Royal Observatory - exhibition review