Caption: 2021 年國際天文學聯合會 OAE 天文攝影比賽流星雨類第三名。 地球繞太陽運行時，可能會穿過彗星或小行星（罕見）留下的碎片的軌跡。這些碎片高速進入大氣層，與大氣層摩擦後在天空中燃燒，形成美麗的軌跡。這張圖片拍攝的是雙子座流星雨，因輻射點位於雙子座而得名。組成流星雨的粒子以相似的速度平行移動，這就產生了一種透視效果，就好像流星雨從天空中的一個點輻射出來，這就是所謂的輻射點。這張於 2020 年 12 月在中國拍攝的照片清晰地展示了這種透視效果。這是一個非常活躍的流星雨，最近每小時可以看到一百多顆。雙子座流星雨是少數幾個與彗星無關的流星雨之一，它與一顆小行星--3200 Phaeton 有關，這顆小行星可能是一顆失去了所有揮發性物質的彗星。這張圖片展示了雙子座流星雨中可以觀測到的大量流星，通常發生在每年 12 月。這張圖片還顯示了夜空中最顯眼的星座之一--獵戶座，獵戶座腰帶上成斜線的三顆星和橘紅色的參宿四很容易就能看到。望遠鏡的正上方有一個亮點，那就是天狼星，夜空中最亮的恆星，也是大犬座的一部分。2 點鐘方向的模糊藍斑是昴星團。
Credit: Hao Yin/IAU OAE

Caption: 2021 年國際天文學聯合會 OAE 天文攝影比賽流星雨類第二名。 當彗星或極少數情況下小行星產生的碎片高速進入地球大氣層時，就會發生流星雨，它們是碎片與大氣層摩擦後在天空中留下的美麗軌跡。這張於2020 年在斯洛伐克拍攝的全景天空圖像生動地展示了英仙座流星雨，讓人可以清晰地看到流星在天空各處劃過。這個流星雨之所以被命名為英仙座流星雨，是因為它的輻射點（流星被誤認為是從天空中某一點發射的）位於英仙座。這是一個非常活躍的流星雨，也是一個非常受歡迎的天文現象，從7月中旬到8月中旬都可以觀測到，這段時間是此流星雨活動的高峰期。英仙座流星雨與彗星109P/Swift-Tuttle有關，因為地球繞太陽運行的軌道會穿過這顆彗星留下的碎片。這種圖像非常適合用於天文館的穹頂投影，可以完美地展示銀河系——我們的家園星系。
Credit: Tomáš Slovinský/IAU OAE

Caption: 2021 年國際天文學聯合會 OAE 天文攝影比賽流星雨類第一名。 地球在圍繞太陽的軌道上運行，當它穿過彗星接近太陽留下的碎片軌跡時，就會發生流星雨。當地球穿過這些碎片（小沙粒大小）時，它們高速地沿著平行軌跡進入大氣層，完全燃燒，在天空中留下美麗的軌跡（條紋）。這些條紋可以一眨眼間出現和消失，也可以持續更長時間。在極少數情況下，碎片來源於小行星，如雙子座流星雨，照片展示的就是 2017 年在中國的天空捕捉到的許多碎片條紋。由於相對運動和視角，流星雨似乎來自一個點，即所謂的輻射點，就像照片展示的那樣。這就好比在無風的雨天開車，從前窗望出去，雨水似乎是直接沖著車窗來的，而實際上雨水是垂直落下的。
Credit: Dai Jianfeng/IAU OAE

Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken from Narrabri, Australia, in April 2014, this photograph shows a meteor next to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the reflection of all this in the water. The Magellanic Clouds are named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who made the first maps of the southern part of South America in the early 16th century but did not survive his expedition voyage. His shipmates called the two nebulae after him, and it was only in the 20th century that astronomy research discovered that they are in fact dwarf galaxies accompanying our own. In the 18th century, the French mathematician J-N. Lacaille, who lived in South Africa for some years in order to draw maps of the sky and the land, invented some new constellations. He measured the positions of some faint stars and listed them in his star catalogue, but did not try to overlay beautiful drawings of real-world objects on the star patterns, so he could name them however he wanted. He was based in the trade station that is now the city of Cape Town and, from this bay, Table Mountain is visible. Lacaille learned from the navigators that they used the clouds around this mountain to predict whether or not the wind would blow in the correct direction and allow for sailing. Normally, there is a huge white cloud at the top of Table Mountain, so Lacaille considered the larger one of the two dwarf galaxies not a “Magellanic Cloud”, but the cloud at Table Mountain. Consequently, he invented the constellation “Mensa”, Table Mountain, in the small area of faint stars directly attached to this dwarf galaxy.
Credit: Fabrizio Melandri/IAU OAE

Caption: 2022 年國際天文學聯合會 OAE 天體攝影競賽 "延時天體圖案 "類別榮譽獎。 這幅延時攝影作品是 2020 年 8 月在斯洛伐克拍攝的。通過在部分畫面中固定天空與地球自轉的相對運動，作為觀眾的我們可以體驗到不同的視角。 銀河系，我們的家園星系，在整段視頻中清晰可見。銀河附近明亮的天體是木星和土星，它們靠得很近，其中木星更亮。 這段視頻還展示了業餘天文學家用望遠鏡對準天空觀測英仙座流星雨的互動過程。天文觀測的一個遺憾是，有時雲層會突然遮住整個天空。雲霧出現的主要原因是雨後溼度較大。 天空中的大部分亮線都是由衛星造成的，但其中有些出現的時間很短，也不是很明顯，它們是流星，因為這段視頻是在英仙座流星雨高峰期前後拍攝的。
Credit: Robert Barsa/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken in the early hours of 24 April 2022, this image captures the sky of Yunnan Province, China, with a reflection on Lake Nian. The Milky Way is visible on the left side, while whitish Earth clouds are visible on the right. A Lyrid meteor crosses the sky along the Milky Way, its tail pointing back toward the shower's radiant in the constellation Lyra, which lies outside the image above the upper edge. The natural colours of the meteor are impressively clear. A few constellations are also visible. In the top left corner we can recognise the small constellation of the Dolphin, in which five brightest stars comprise the asterism. This asterism forms the head-part of the larger Greek constellation of the Dolphin and was considered the Dolphin since Roman times, when Ptolemy formed the new constellation of Equuleus in the southern part of the original figure. In mediaeval China, this asterism was considered the Good and the Rotten Gourd, the good one being formed by the brighter rhombus on the top and the rotten one made of faint stars in the tail of the Roman dolphin. The bright star to the right of the Dolphin and at the top of the image is Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila. In Chinese uranology, Altair, together with some adjacent areas, forms the constellation of the Drum at the River. However, in Chinese folklore, the bright star stands for a boy in love with a girl, who is represented by the bright star Vega (in Lyra) on the other side of a huge celestial stream, the Milky Way. Vega is not visible in this image but the Lyrid meteor is like a teardrop of the unlucky girl who cannot reach her lover. In the upper right of the image, the constellation Scorpius shines with its bright reddish star Antares. With some of its neighbouring stars, it was regarded in China as the asterism of The Heart, which was also one of the Lunar Mansions. It was considered the heart of the Azure Dragon, the super-constellation of spring, in ancient China. Scorpius and Sagittarius, in the middle of the image, contain the brightest clouds of the Milky Way, the Galactic Centre, which also has clearly visible dark clouds in front of the bright ones. There is no classical Greco-Roman constellation between Aquila and Scorpius, but in the 17th century, two Polish astronomers, the couple Jan and Elizabeta Hevelius, named this area of bright clouds in the Milky Way Scutum, the Shield, in memory of a Polish king. In China, however, this area directly outside the super-constellation (or heavenly enclosure) of the Celestial Market Place was seen as depicting Market Officers.
Credit: Jianfeng Dai/IAU OAE

Caption: 這張照片於2022年12月13日用智能手機拍攝，記錄下了雲南藍月谷上空一顆雙子座流星劃過夜空的瞬間，以玉龍雪山的寧靜景緻為背景，呈現出令人屏息的美景。雙子座流星雨因其耀眼的亮度和鮮豔的色彩而聞名，是最壯觀的流星雨之一，其起源於小行星3200法厄同。每年，當地球穿越法厄同的碎片軌跡時，塵埃和岩石碎片在大氣層中氣化，形成了這一壯麗的雙子座流星雨。在這幅令人驚嘆的夜空影像中，雙子座的雙星（北河二和北河三）被左側樹木的剪影遮擋。靜謐湖面映照出獵戶座的群星，獵戶座星座從畫面中央下方逐漸升起，而紅色的火星依然明亮，成為畫面中最耀眼的天體燈塔。這一切發生在月出之前，為這一幕增添了更多的神祕和壯麗。
Credit: 戴建峰/國際天文學聯合會教育辦公室 (CC BY 4.0)