The Universe Shines for Astronomy Photographer of the Year Winners

By Nancy Atkinson September 20, 2012
The Universe Shines for Astronomy Photographer of the Year Winners

The overall winner in the Royal Observatory Greenwich's annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, M51 by Martin Pugh.

The "People and Space" winner was Laurent Laveder from France, with "Facing Venus-Jupiter Close Conjunction."

The "Our Solar System" category winner was Transit of Venus 2012 in Hydrogen-Alpha, by Chris Warren of the UK.

Earth and Space category winner, "Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades" by Masahiro Miyasaka from Japan.

"Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year" category winner was Jacob von Chorus from Canada

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com