About

Join National Maritime Museum after hours for a panel discussion with judges and astrophotographers from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition! Afterwards, you'll be able to view the exhibition of shortlisted and winning photographs from the 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year. 

Leonardo di Maggio
Leonardo is a fine art, landscape and astrophotographer based in London. His photographs range from neo-futuristic architectural abstracts to deep space astrophotography and scenes of the Milky Way towering above beautiful landscapes. His work explores spatial landscape abstraction, and he often uses strong contrasts between light and dark to sculpt form and guide the viewer around organic or geometric imagery. In 2021, Leonardo combined his passion for space and astrophotography with his ideas about structure and abstraction to create his photographic artwork ‘Celestial Fracture’ earning him the joint win for The Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation.

Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder
Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder is an astronomer, astrophysicist and science communicator who has been a judge in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition for the last two years. She is currently the Senior Manager of Public Astronomy at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. As an astrophysicist, she used microwave and radio telescopes to study the formation of stars and planets in our Galaxy at Cardiff University, Imperial College London and University of Exeter. Emily became interested in astronomy as a child, when she would look up at the night sky and wonder if we were alone in the Universe. She still does this today.

Deepal Ratnayaka
Deepal Ratnayaka is a passionate self-taught amateur astrophotographer from Windsor, UK. His work has been published in local as well as national newspapers and magazines. He was also the winner of the People & Space category of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year for 2021 with his image ‘Lockdown’. By profession, Deepal plays an executive role in the IT Industry.