Ali Alobaidly Wins 2026 ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year for Shark Nebula Image

Key facts

• Ali Alobaidly won the overall prize for The Quiet Predator, an image of the Shark Nebula (LDN 1235).
• The Shark Nebula is 650 light years away in the constellation Cepheus.
• Alobaidly captured the image in Jahra Governorate, Kuwait, on 21–22 August 2025.
• Nikolaos Strimpoulis, aged 15 from Greece, won the ZWO Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year award for Mineral Moon.
• The exhibition of winning photographs opens at the National Maritime Museum, London, on 18 September 2026.
• Kfir Simon of Israel was runner-up for Beyond the Wormhole, an image of the Helix Nebula.
• Humbert Cédric of France received a highly commended mention for Abell 85.
• Category winners include Radoslav Sviretsov, Stefano Pellegrini, Paweł Paweł, Miguel Claro, 智鹏 严 and Xinran Li, Tom Williams, Max Inwood, Haocheng Zhu, and Petr Horalek.