Stunning images of space abound in this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition

Taking photos of our universe is hard work, but the winners and contestants in the Royal Observatory Greenwich's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition make it look easy.

People who take images of the cosmos are called astrophotographers, and it can become an obsession. But they come from all walks of life, with varying degrees of equipment and know-how from all around the globe. But what they all have in common is a love of our night sky and the desire to share it with others.

Taking astronomical photos requires a lot of patience. For deep-sky images — like nebulas, galaxies and star clusters —most astrophotographers use special cameras that attach to their telescopes.

Much like space telescopes, the photographers often use different filters, such as red, green and blue, but sometimes others that only allow particular wavelengths to show up on the sensor. They take many images in each filter, leaving the camera's shutter open for varying amounts of time, sometimes 10 minutes or more, depending on how dim the object is.

Then, using special astrophotography software, they stack those images together — imagine literally adding photos one on top of the other; this sharpens the image and reduces what photographers call noise. This produces the final colour image that can then be processed using different photographic software. 

Here are some of the winners of this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year, along with honourable mentions and special considerations.

The overall winner of the award was Gerald Rhemann for the above image of Comet Leonard, which was discovered by G.J. Leonard on Jan. 3, 2021. The comet made its closest pass of Earth in December 2021. 

Comets are balls of dust and ice that orbit the sun. As comets — often called "dirty snowballs" — near the sun, their tails can elongate and become brighter. 

Rhemann's image shows the comet on Dec. 25, 2021, where a noticeable part of its tail was pinched off and carried away by solar wind.

Unfortunately, Comet Leonard disintegrated in early 2022 and will not be seen again.

Damian Peach is an accomplished astrophotographer, with most of his images focusing on Jupiter and Saturn. He won runner-up in the Planets, Comets and Asteroids category.

He took an image of our solar system's biggest planet, Jupiter, together with three of its largest moons — Ganymede, Io and Europa — from Chile in August 2021.

Also visible is Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a storm that has been brewing across the planet for at least 400 years. 

Lionel Majzik took this image of Comet 4P/Faye in front of a nebula known as Lower's Nebula or Sh2-261 in the constellation Orion. This image was highly commended in the Planets, Comets and Asteroids category.