Caption: 美國國家航空航天局宇航員埃德溫·巴茲·奧爾德林在月球上進行艙外活動（EVA）時，在阿波羅11號 "鷹 "月球著陸器前安裝地震儀。尼爾·阿姆斯特朗在1969年人類首次登月任務中拍攝了這張照片。
Credit: 美國國家航空航天局/阿波羅項目檔案 credit link

Caption: First place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Sun/Moon haloes. Photographed at Kaleida, Manitoba in Canada, this fisheye image beautifully captures the rare optical phenomena encircling the moon known as the “22° halo” and the horizontal white circle passing through the moon called the “paraselenic circle”. The white band circling the whole sky at the same altitude as the moon is named after Selene, the ancient Greek Titan, famously called the goddess of the moon. The more commonly observed counterpart produced by the sun is known as the parhelic circle, named after the Greek god of the sun, Helios. Both the 22° halo and the paraselenic circle are produced due to reflection of the moonlight from near vertical surfaces of ice crystals. Parts closer to the moon are caused due to external reflections, whereas those further away are created due to internal reflections. The constellation of the big dipper at the center makes this image even more spectacular. Can you spot it?
Credit: Sheila Wiwchar/IAU OAE

Caption: 2021年國際天文學聯合會教育辦公室舉辦的天體攝影比賽月全食類季軍作品。 這是 2015 年 9 月 28 日發生的超級月亮月全食的延時攝影照片。照片記錄了月球穿過地球本影的過程：地球本影於世界協調時凌晨 1 時 07 分接觸月球外緣（左上角），於世界協調時凌晨 4 時 27 分離開月球表面（右下角）。
Credit: 丹尼爾·亨利/國際天文學聯合會教育辦公室

Caption: First place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Total lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse occurs when the full moon moves into the Earth`s shadow. This is the case when the Sun, Earth and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned. The reddish light reflected from the lunar surface is caused by sunlight that has been refracted on its way through Earth´s atmosphere in the direction of the Moon. It appears reddish because of the Rayleigh scattering of bluer light. The round shape of the Earth's shadow visible on the lunar surface was a proof for Aristotle that the Earth must be a sphere. This photo shows the eclipsed Moon that sets near the Rochetta di Prendera, Dolomiti Unesco, Italy, on 21 January 2019.
Credit: Alessandra Masi/IAU OAE

Caption: The image shows the nearly full Moon observed with a small telescope and a DSLR camera.
Credit: Luc Viatour credit link

Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This photograph shows the young lunar crescent, some of the nine brightest stars of the Pleiades (with one behind a cloud) on the right, and the planet Mercury, looking slightly red, in the middle of the image. This picture is rather suggestive of the idea that the Pleiades might possibly consist of seven stars. However, the viewer is misled by the clouds; five of the stars form a tiny chariot, one is next to the handle, and three are at the other end of the quadrilateral. Eight stars would be clearly visible if there were no clouds. This configuration of the young Moon next to the Pleiades is visible only in the northern hemisphere spring. Thus it was used by the ancient Babylonians to determine the second month of their year and to judge whether or not an intercalary month was necessary. At least as early as the second millennium before the common era, the Babylonians used several asterisms for each month, with another one of them reappearing every five days after invisibility during daylight. To determine the necessity of intercalation in order to synchronise the solar and the lunar year, the Babylonians used several asterisms, not only the Pleiades. For instance, they also made use of the bright stars Arcturus and Sirius, and they observed a configuration with the Moon as well as heliacal phenomena. The modern Jewish and modern Islamic traditions still make use of some of the Babylonian astronomical rules. However, given that the constellations have shifted as a result of precession, and the fact that nowadays we also have computational means to calculate our calendars, this configuration of the small crescent Moon and the Pleiades is less useful, though it remains exceptionally beautiful. Thus the ancient Babylonian and middle Babylonian tradition survives only rudimentarily. Furthermore, it is unlikely that it is depicted in the Nebra Disc from Bronze Age Europe, as has long been claimed. This image was taken on Elba Island, Italy, in May 2022.
Credit: Giulio Colombo/ IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns. This image composition is amazing. In the far background of the landscape we see a chain of mountains that seems to mirror the structure of the Milky Way in the sky above. The strong daylight-like colours of the landscape are caused by the Moon, the bright light at the top of the image. Taken in Kinabalu, Malaysia, in February 2019, this image shows the alignment of planets and the Moon, conveying the idea of the ecliptic as the central line of the Zodiac, the plane within which all planets orbit the Sun. The ecliptic is the central line of the Zodiac, so the region of about five to 10 degrees either side of the ecliptic is where the constellations of the Zodiac are located. Starting from the horizon towards the bottom left of the image we can see the planets Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. The planets have different cultural significance for people around the world, and are deeply embedded in social, religious and practical aspects of life. For example, Wardaman traditions of Indigenous Australians associate the planets with ancestor spirits who traverse the Celestial Road (ecliptic). The appearance and disappearance of planets in the sky are associated with various ceremonies. For example, when Venus starts being the “Morning star” after having been the “Evening star”, this marks the Banumbirr ceremony for the Yolnu people of Arnhem Land, in Australia. The image also shows the constellations Scorpius, Aquila, Lupus and Triangulum Australe, the asterism of the Teapot, and the two pointer stars Alpha and Beta Centauri. The constellations, asterisms and individual stars within them have significance in many different cultures. Malaysia, being close to the equator, has had connections to the north as well as to the south and almost the whole sky is visible over the course of the year. The star Antares is seen by the Kokatha people of the Western Desert as Kogolongo, the red tailed black cockatoo, while the Boorong refer to it as Djuit, the red-rumped parrot. The two stars which form the stinger of Scorpius (Shaula and Lesath), are called Karik Karik, the Australian Kestrel.
Credit: Likai Lin/IAU OAE

Caption: 這張照片是 2023 年 2 月在美國賓夕法尼亞州盧澤恩縣上空用智能手機拍攝的，讓我們得以一窺合相現象，這是一種迷人的天文現象，當從我們的視角看到兩個或兩個以上的天體在天空中緊緊相鄰時就會發生這種現象，儘管這些天體實際上並不靠近彼此。在這張照片中，木星（上面）的光輝、金星的魅力（中間）和月亮熟悉的光芒（下麵）在微妙的雲層和樹線輪廓的背景下翩翩起舞，這一刻值得珍藏。
Credit: Joslynn Appel/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 2023 年 5 月，花月在美國賓夕法尼亞州盧澤恩縣的夜空中投射出璀璨的光芒，該月因北美花朵盛開而得名。儘管最初有雲層遮擋，但月亮的光輝在 23:00 左右破雲而出，創造出迷人的奇觀。這張由智能手機捕捉到的迷人照片不僅紀念了這一天文事件，而且還強調了保護黑夜的重要性。月亮的光輝照亮了錯呲復雜的地球大氣層，散落的雲層更增添了大氣的絢麗多彩。保護這些純淨無瑕的天空對於保持我們與天體奇觀的聯繫至關重要。
Credit: Joslynn Appel/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 2021年國際天文學聯合會（IAU）OAE天文攝影比賽太陽/月亮光暈類別的季軍。 這張令人驚嘆的照片捕捉到了夜空中月虹和月光布羅肯光環的奇觀，拍攝地點位於日本長野縣飛驒山脈的燕岳。這兩種大氣現象都是由於月光被水滴反射和折射而形成的。月虹或月光虹是一種罕見的現象，只有在特定條件下才會出現：需要有明亮的滿月（月亮高度低於42°）、月亮在一側、雨在月亮的對側，並且夜空足夠黑。布羅肯光環得名於德國哈茨山脈的最高峰——布羅肯山，這是首次記錄到這一現象的地方。在這裡，布羅肯光環從山頂上可見，其表現為觀察者的影子放大投射在雲上，周圍環繞著由同心圓組成的光環。這些光環的中心點正對著背景中明亮的月亮。
Credit: Kouji Ohnishi/IAU OAE