These are some of the stunning photos of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The project is now in its fourth year and has again received a record number of entries with a huge range of subjects captured by amateur and professional photographers from around the globe.

If you are also fascinated by planets, stars, moons, galaxies, the transit of Venus, and other amazing celestial bodies, you can enjoy the best of these exceptional photographs in the free exhibition of the finalists at the Royal Observatory‘s Astronomy Centre in Greenwich until February 2013.

Photos from DeepSkyColors, mpastro2001, Laurent Laveder, (ix)alon, masahiro miyasaka from the Astrophoto Group pool.