{"id":773647,"date":"2026-05-04T23:41:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/773647\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T23:41:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:41:30","slug":"15-stunning-images-from-the-2026-milky-way-photographer-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/773647\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Stunning Images From the 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Snowy<\/p>\n

Travel photography blog Capture the Atlas has announced the winners of its annual Milky Way Photographer of the Year competition<\/a> which features 25 spectacular photos of the night sky. <\/p>\n

The 2026 edition of the competition \u2014 which is now in its ninth year \u2014 received over 6,500 submissions, once again setting a record for the highest number in the project\u2019s history, with selected photographers representing 15 nationalities. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s collection features images captured across 12 countries and regions, including New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Chile, France, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Mexico, and Botswana.<\/p>\n

\"Rocky\u201cCelestial Light Over Sea Cliffs\u201d \u2013 Anthony Lopez <\/p>\n

Each year, Capture the Atlas editor Dan Zafra curates the list based on image quality, story, originality, and the inspiration each photograph provides.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, this collection reminds us that photographing the Milky Way is not only about technique or planning. It is about curiosity, patience, and the desire to experience the night sky in places where it still feels wild,\u201d says Dan Zafra, editor of Capture the Atlas. \u201cMany 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A\u201cFireball in Paradise\u201d \u2013 Jason Rice \"A\u201cFirewater\u201d \u2013 Baillie Farley \"A\u201cGalactic Gandalf \u2013 Evan McKay \"A\u201cGalactic Spine\u201d \u2013 Andrew Imhoff <\/p>\n

Capture the Atlas says that this year\u2019s group of winners ups the ante over previous competitions as not only are the photos beautiful, but they also include what it describes as several rare and difficult to capture scenes. <\/p>\n

\u201cAmong them are the Milky Way above the working telescopes of the Very Large Telescope in Paranal, Chile, an image from the restricted Valle de la Luna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Argentina, and a photograph from the Sierra of Baja California in Mexico. The selection also features one of the first night images taken from a canyon inside the Hopi Indian Reservation,\u201d Capture the Atlas says. <\/p>\n

\"View\u201cGalaxy on the Rise\u201d \u2013 Anastasia Gulova
\n \"A\u201cGeminid Symphony Over La Palma\u2019s Guardian of the Sky\u201d \u2013 Uro\u0161 Fink <\/p>\n

The winning set of images also shows multiple astronomical and natural phenomena, including the Perseids and Geminids meteor showers, a giant fireball over the Florida coast, the Milky Way rising above fireflies in Italy, and a view of the galaxy above a sea of clouds in La Palma.<\/p>\n

\"Large\u201cLost in the Ripples of Space and Time\u201d \u2013 Leonel Padr\u00f3n \"A\u201cMilky Way Over Tatra Mountains\u201d \u2013 \u0141ukasz Remkowicz \"A\u201cMy Perfect Night\u201d -Daniel Vi\u00f1\u00e9 Garcia \"Snow-covered\u201cNight at the Remarkables\u201d \u2013 Tom Rae \"A\u201cPerseid Meteors Over Durdle Door\u201d \u2013 Josh Dury
\n \"Five\u201cSodium Milky Way\u201d \u2013 Julien Looten \"A\u201cThe Milky Way Over a Field of Lupines\u201d \u2013 Alvin Wu <\/p>\n

The images above are joined by the full list of 25 winners which can be viewed in their entirety \u2014 including EXIF data \u2014 on Capture the Atlas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Image credits:<\/strong> Header photo titled \u201cAoraki Mt Cook\u201d by Owain Scullion. All images provided courtesy of Capture the Atlas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travel photography blog Capture the Atlas has announced the winners of its annual Milky Way Photographer of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":773648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,575,158966,4315,16289,1033,187794,171,158969,316998,91018,783,10372,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-773647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-astrophotography","11":"tag-capturetheatlas","12":"tag-competition","13":"tag-contest","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-donpettit","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-milkyway","18":"tag-milkywayphotographeroftheyear","19":"tag-photocontest","20":"tag-space","21":"tag-spotlight","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116518957896980430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}