Chinese photographers featured prominently and won prizes in three categories and one of the individual awards, with the most notable success being the young photographer award, jointly won by Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen, both aged 14, for their image Andromeda Galaxy: The Neighbor.
The official awards news release described their picture as "a spellbinding photograph of one of the Milky Way's closest and largest neighbors" that revealed the vibrant colors of a nearby galaxy, stars piercing through the darkness and emphasized the awe and wonder of the breathtaking sight.
"It is a superb capture by young astrophotographers, who also demonstrate their exceptional talent in processing a deep-sky photo."
Hanwen, one of the two Chinese teenagers to win the young photographer award, says, "I think this photo shows how gorgeous our nearest neighbor is."
"One of the main functions of astrophotography is to attract more people to fall in love with astronomy by showing the beauty of the universe," says Zezhen, the other teenager who won the award.
Another Chinese winner at the competition was Liang Weitang, in the stars and nebulae category, with the picture The Eye of God, an ethereal image of the Helix nebula, which looks like a large eye gazing down on the Earth.
The overall top prize, chosen unanimously by the judges, went to Gerald Rhemann from Austria, who also won in the planets, comets and asteroids category, with his image Disconnection Event, which depicts a piece of Comet Leonard's gas tail being disconnected and carried away by solar winds.
Rhemann's photograph won special praise from the judges. "Comet Leonard, a long-period comet, first identified in January 2021, was captured by the Austrian photographer in Namibia on Christmas Day," according to the award announcement that added the comet will not be visible from the Earth again.
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