These Ten Breathtaking Images From the 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Contest Capture the Beauty of Our Galaxy

The gorgeous astrophotographs highlight the dazzling night sky and remind viewers what we risk losing to light pollution

Margherita Bassi | Daily Correspondent

May 19, 2026 12:03 p.m.

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Since 2018, astrophotographer Dan Zafra has organized and curated Capture the Atlas’ Milky Way Photographer of the Year, a competition that recognizes 25 gorgeous snapshots of the remarkable spiral galaxy that our solar system resides in. Now in its 9th edition, this year’s stellar winners have just been announced, and the photos were captured from several corners of the globe, including Florida, Italy, Botswana, New Zealand and Australia.

“Every year, this collection reminds us that photographing the Milky Way is not only about technique or planning,” says Zafra, chief photographer and self-defined “astro freak” at Capture the Atlas, as reported by Popular Science. “It is about curiosity, patience and the desire to experience the night sky in places where it still feels wild,” he adds. “Many of these skies are becoming increasingly rare, and we hope these images inspire people not only to admire them, but also to value and protect them.”

One of the winners is featured above and is Tom Rae’s “Night at the Remarkables.” The astrophotographer’s image captures New Zealand’s Remarkables mountain range with the Milky Way stretching overhead and Queenstown in the distance, on the edge of Lake Wakatipu.

Here are nine more award-winning photographs that show the beauty of our galaxy.

Astrophotographer Alvin Wu captured this photo in Twizel, a town that sits within New Zealand’s Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, on the South Island. With the fisheye perspective, he captured the night sky at 360 degrees and a surrounding field of pink and purple lupines. The band of bright green around the circumference of the sky is the Southern Lights.

“To me, this recognition is more than just being selected,” Wu writes on Instagram. “It’s a window that helps bring the beauty of the night sky to more people around the world. Beyond city lights, the sky can still be incredibly vivid and alive.”

Uroš Fink’s masterpiece features a rainbow-lit winter night sky over the Gran Telescopio Canarias on La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands. The astrophotographer captured the Geminid meteor shower, whose meteors always appear to shoot from the Gemini constellation. The “shooting stars” happen when Earth passes through the trail of asteroid 3200 Phaethon.

“Although the dome could not be opened due to humidity, the experience of witnessing such dark skies for the first time was remarkable, with the Milky Way appearing almost three-dimensional,” Fink says in the statement revealing the winners.

In his aptly named “Galactic Gandalf,” astrophotographer Evan McKay captured a wizard-looking figure holding a brightly lit staff as they pose between two arches—the one of stone they stand on, the starry Milky Way they stand beneath. You can almost hear the iconic line, “You shall not pass!” echoing amongst the stars. The photograph, appropriately snapped in New Zealand, where The Lord of the Rings movies were filmed, features another individual besides Gandalf, however.

“I found that a seal had settled exactly where I had planned to set up my tripod. It showed little interest in moving, and judging by how worn and polished the rock was, it was clearly one of its preferred resting spots,” McKay says in the statement. “Eventually, the seal shifted slightly to the side, remaining within the scene for the duration of the shoot. It can still be seen in the final image for those who look closely.”

This image snapped by astrophotographer Anthony Lopez immortalizes our galaxy as it stretches above the coastline of Saint Raphaël along the French Riviera. Besides the galaxy, the Orion constellation is also a central character in the photograph, with a nebula—a cloud of cosmic dust with baby stars—aligning to give the iconic hunter a bright pink head.

“Night photography has evolved so much. With new techniques and more powerful gear, it’s becoming more accessible than ever… and the level keeps rising every single year,” Lopez writes on Instagram, after seeing all the winning images. The competition “has inspired an entire generation of nightscape photographers.”

“Lost in the Ripples of Space and Time” by astrophotographer Leonel Padrón captures the Milky Way curving over Pinnacles Desert in Nambung, Western Australia. Rock formations jut out of the sandy ground, with the central one aligning closely with the South Celestial Pole. The right side of the sky features the bright red Gum Nebula, the leftover shell of gas and dust from an exploded star.

“There’s something uniquely powerful about a calm, windless night in the Pinnacles Desert, a place that never fails to remind me how fortunate we are to have such pristine dark skies so close to home, just a short drive away,” Padrón says in the statement. “As the sun sets beyond the Indian Ocean, a profound stillness settles over Nambung, transforming the landscape into an almost otherworldly scene and drawing me back here time and time again.”

Astrophotographer Anastasia Gulova searched for the perfect spot to snap photos for almost four hours—and the effort appears to have been worth it. Also captured in the Canary Islands, “Galaxy on the Rise” frames the Milky Way in the mouth of a cave, as seen from inside the rock structure. The ocean provides a strikingly flat horizon over which the sky puts on a dazzling show of dust and glittering stars.

“Turns out my highly questionable habit of freezing alone in remote places in the dark at 3 a.m. has officially paid off,” Gulova writes on Instagram, after learning about her win.

In astrophotographer Jason Rice’s image, a meteor blazes over Cape San Blas in Florida at a slight angle compared to the Milky Way. The space rock’s appearance was an unexpected but highly appreciated photobomb, especially since Rice hadn’t originally planned to visit the beach because of forecast cloudy, rainy weather.

“After setting up the sequence, I left the camera running and returned to my vehicle. Several hours later, shortly after midnight, I noticed the ground around me suddenly illuminated by a green glow, prompting me to look up. What followed was the largest meteor I have ever witnessed,” Rice says in the statement.

“It was one of the most memorable moments I have experienced in astrophotography, completely unplanned and impossible to anticipate,” he adds.

Translating to “the Garden of Stars,” astrophotographer Luca Fornaciari captured this photo in Italy’s Apennine mountain range. In a snapshot that looks like it comes from a fairy tale, the composition includes the Milky Way extending diagonally across a star-peppered sky and above a lavender field full of fireflies. A warmly lit house sits nestled on the edge of a treeline, and you can almost hear the crickets chirping on this summer night. 

“Astrophotography and night photography are defined by moments, brief instances when everything aligns, and each element falls into place,” Fornaciari says in the statement. “The effort is always rewarded by the emotion of the final result.”  

Astrophotographer Stefano Pellegrini got this shot while traveling alone through Botswana and living out of his car. As the name suggests, the photograph features the galaxy sprawling over baobabs, which are extraordinarily long-lived trees with thick trunks. They can live up to 2,500 years, though potentially even longer. 

During his ten-day trip moving through remote desert landscapes, Pellegrini was “focused entirely on photographing the night sky,” he says in the statement. “This location [in the award-winning image] became the highlight of the trip: a small, ancient island rising from the middle of a vast salt pan.”

On Instagram, Pellegrini writes that he’s happy that this photo was among the awardees because he wants “to share with the world this secluded and little-known location and its pristine skies.”

Margherita Bassi | Read More

Margherita Bassi is a freelance journalist and trilingual storyteller. Her work has appeared in publications including BBC Travel, Discover magazine, Live Science, Atlas Obscura and Hidden Compass.