9 Astronomy Photographer of the Year Entries That Will Leave You Breathless

"The iconic M31 Andromeda Galaxy, and its companion M32 and M110 galaxies, are pictured here in exquisite detail, strongly highlighting the active star formation regions of M31 along its entire spiral structure. To achieve this level of fidelity, the Hydrogen-Alpha emission line was used to enhance the red channel. The image is an HDR image, bringing out the faintest spiral structures as much as the intense galactic core. This image is a 4-panel mosaic comprising 76 hours of total exposure time. 1 and 10 minute exposures were captured throughout in order to produce the HDR result, with a 3nm Hydrogen-Alpha narrowband filter used with 15 minute exposures to bring out the active star formation regions."