Insight Astronomy

The Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 was the eighth edition of this annual competition, organised by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine. The 2016 edition was notable for its distinguished judging panel, which included a judge from the European Southern Observatory's education and Public Outreach Department, as well as former Turner Prize-winning artist Wolfgang Tillmans. The competition received a record number of more than 4,500 entries from astrophotographers in over 80 countries. The results were compiled into a published collection — Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Collection 5 — featuring all winning and shortlisted images, and each image was accompanied by a caption, photographer, location, and technical details. Chinese photographer Yu Jun beat thousands of amateur and professional photographers from around the globe to claim the top title, receiving his prize at a ceremony beneath the dome of the Peter Harrison Planetarium at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. His winning image illustrated the phenomenon of Baily's Beads during the total solar eclipse of 9 March 2016, captured from Luwuk, Indonesia. Made up of several stacked images, it revealed the movements of the Moon across the face of the Sun, with beads of sunlight seeping from behind the dark lunar disc. Royal Observatory Public Astronomer Dr Marek Kukula praised the image for compressing the progress of an entire solar eclipse into a single frame with "consummate skill and precision."