The Reach for the Stars Astrophotography Competition return for another year to invite people across Ireland to pause, look up, and capture the moments that remind us to reflect on the extraordinary nature of our night sky.
Organised this year by the school of cosmic physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), the competition aims to find the best astrophotographs taken in Ireland between June 3rd, 2025 and May 5th, 2026.
Photographs can be entered in three categories:
1. Night Sky in Your Hand – Images taken with a smartphone only, without telescopes, capturing an astronomical scene.
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2. Out of this World – Images of astronomical objects, including the sun, moon, planets, and deep-sky objects such as nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies.
3. Back on Earth – Images that depict astronomical features alongside landscapes, landmarks, nature, buildings, or heritage sites.
In addition, one overall public choice winner will be selected by public vote from across the shortlisted entries in all categories.
Entrants may submit up to two images per category to the competition. The deadline for entries is 5pm, May 6th. Shortlisted entrants will be announced in late June.
Entries will be judged by Dan Dennison, visual editor, The Irish Times; Donnacha O’Driscoll, president of the Irish Astronomical Society; Prof Peter Gallagher, senior professor and head of astronomy and astrophysics at DIAS, and Dr Niamh Shaw, scientist, engineer, and one of Ireland’s leading science communicators.
Click here to enter the 2026 competition
Winners 2025
Runners-up 2025
And now, while the following shots did not win, they did provide added inspiration.
