15 Beautiful Images From the 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year

Travel pictures weblog Capture the Atlas has introduced the winners of its annual Milky Way Photographer of the Year competition which options 25 spectacular photographs of the night time sky.

The 2026 version of the competitors — which is now in its ninth yr — acquired over 6,500 submissions, as soon as once more setting a report for the best quantity within the undertaking’s historical past, with chosen photographers representing 15 nationalities.

This yr’s assortment options photographs captured throughout 12 international locations and areas, together with New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Chile, France, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Mexico, and Botswana.

Each yr, Capture the Atlas editor Dan Zafra curates the listing based mostly on picture high quality, story, originality, and the inspiration every {photograph} supplies.

“Every 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,” says Dan Zafra, editor of Capture the Atlas. “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.”

Capture the Atlas says that this yr’s group of winners ups the ante over earlier competitions as not solely are the photographs lovely, however in addition they embody what it describes as a number of uncommon and troublesome to seize scenes.

“Among 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,” Capture the Atlas says.

The profitable set of photographs additionally reveals a number of astronomical and pure phenomena, together with the Perseids and Geminids meteor showers, a large 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.

The photographs above are joined by the complete listing of 25 winners which might be seen of their entirety — together with EXIF knowledge — on Capture the Atlas.

Image credit: Header picture titled “Aoraki Mt Cook” by Owain Scullion. All photographs offered courtesy of Capture the Atlas.