Astronomy Photographer of the Year

Most beautiful astronomy photos, two Italians among the winners

Among the winners of the Greenwich Observatory competition were Daniele Borsari and Marcella Pace

by Leopoldo Benacchio

12 September 2025

4' min read

Key points

The Andromeda Galaxy, seen as never before
The Italians Borsari and Pace
The Passion for the Moon
The exhibition in Greenwich

4' min read

As every year, the Royal Greenwich Observatory revealed the names of the winners of the 17th astrophotography competition, supported by Zwo, a Chinese company recognised as a leader in the field of equipment for this particular field. The Italians' performance in the competition was excellent.

It is an eagerly awaited event, and not only by fans of this field of photography, but also by the public, since, along with the names, the 31 selected images are also published, all of them beautiful, and some even sensational.

Images from 68 countries

The participation was very impressive: more than 5,800 images submitted, from no less than 68 countries, testifying to the spread of and interest in astrophotography, which at first glance would appear to be a hobby limited to industrialised countries.

Imagination, inventiveness, attunement with the spectacle of the sky are the basic ingredients of the good astrophotographer, combined with a lot of photographic technique, knowledge of the basics of astronomy, almost infinite patience and often resistance to fatigue and cold. Being exposed to the stars and weather comes from the Latin 'ad sidera'.

The Andromeda Galaxy, seen as never before

The photo that won first prize overall was that of the Andromeda galaxy, by the Chinese photographers Weitang Liang, Qi Yang and Chuhong Yu, which presents the well-known and photographed galaxy, also the subject of a famous novel by Fred Hoyle, a well-known astrophysicist and writer. The cleverness of the group of photographers was to present it in a new and different way, rich in detail, thanks to the use of a very long focal length telescope.

The Italians Borsari and Pace

What interests us most, however, is the Italian participation, which saw in the beginners' category, under 15 years of age, the young Daniele Borsari win, with his photo of the Orion region in black and white.

In the Moon category, Marcella Giulia Pace won with a photo that is as strange as it is fascinating, with her 'the mark of refraction'. Pace had the intuition to photograph in sequence a very thin crescent moon, almost a sign in the sky, as it rises, reddened as always happens to the Moon when it is very low on the horizon. Here, then, are several red arcs of circumference, with the first ones, lower on the horizon, distorted at the bottom by the refraction that alters the light coming from our satellite, as it sometimes does with that of the sun that we see dipping into the sea at sunset.

Passion for the Moon

"I was in front of my house, near Modica in Sicily, with the view of the purple Ionian Sea below and I wanted to photograph the Moon, how it changes its shape as it rises above the horizon,' says Marcella Pace. It should not be thought that she is super passionate about astronomy, which she obviously knows and appreciates, but this is part of her more general interest in the Moon, atmospheric events, such as refraction, halos, and in general the contact of light with the atmosphere. The Moon, then, is the most fascinating celestial body, as the many poems dedicated to it in all literature show; it can be seen now during the day and then at night, only to disappear for a few days. It also fascinates the children, who ask Marcella, who is an elementary school teacher in her home town, after years in Trentino, a region that has remained in her heart.

How does one come to take such strange and fascinating photos she reveals to us, talking about her interest, from a young age, in the world around us, from the ant building its house to the shooting star. The enchantment, a word used by the winner, then continues thanks to a middle school teacher and the purchase of a first film camera, of limited performance, but with which she learns.

With digital everything becomes easier because you can experiment and the Moon, which is constantly changing colour, is still the ideal object. Colour fascinates in all her photos, which can be found, divided into proper chapters, on her website "greenflash.photo", which is definitely worth a visit to understand the spirit that drives this photographer of the sky and which has won her other prestigious awards in the past, even abroad. Also exceptional is the photo, found on the site, of the many colours that the Moon can take on: a spiral of images collected over ten years of stalking our beautiful satellite. A love that can be perceived as candid and perhaps even naive, which also leads her to have respect for every form of nature and the environment, sentiments that she also tries to pass on through her teaching to her fortunate pupils.

The exhibition in Greenwich

The prize now becomes a beautiful exhibition on display in Greenwich, in the halls of the Maritime Museum, where you will find flaming galaxies, colourful northern lights, planets and stars, nebulae and comets, Sun and Moon and even a photograph taken by NASA astronaut Don Pettit. The Earth from orbit was taken during Iss Expedition 72. This is a special display taken from the International Space Station (Iss) using a home-made sidereal star tracker made by the astronaut. Pettit returned to Earth in mid-April 2025 after a seven-month mission and opened up a new category for astrophotography: photos from space.