Astronomy Photographer of the Year is an annual competition featuring the world’s greatest space photography. Photographers from across the globe compete to take home the prestigious title.
 
"This image shows a panorama of the Milky Way over a high mountain ridge in the Pyrenees mountains, on the border between France and Spain. It takes 3 hours to climb this viewpoint inside a natural gap called La Brèche de Roland at 2,804 metres. From here, the rocky spur gives the appearance of the prow of a gigantic stone ship. The camera revealed an intense green airglow invisible to the naked eye. I wanted to add a human presence to show the place of humankind in this landscape, facing these immensities: the cosmos and the imposing mountains. I asked my friend to stand at the foot of the mountain, with a headlamp placed behind towards the rock to reveal her silhouette; she was wearing only a dress despite the very cold and windy conditions. There was a kind of magic in being here at night. The sky was one of the clearest I’ve ever seen and from this unusual place, losing our bearings, it seemed we could dive into this vastness, as if we were in a dream." Jean-Francois Graffand

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