To enter the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition you will first need to add your photos to the Astronomy Photographer of the Year group on the photo-sharing website, Flickr. Once you have done this, fill in the online application form on the nmm.ac.uk website.

Through this form you will be able to nominate your chosen category and consideration for any of the relevant special prizes. The four main competition categories are:

* Earth and Space: This is for photos that include landscape, people and other ‘Earthly’ things. Your picture should also include an astronomical subject – for example the stars, the Moon, or near-Earth phenomena such as aurora.

* Our Solar System: This is for photos of our Sun and its family of planets, moons, asteroids and comets.

* Deep Space: This is for photos of anything beyond our Solar System, including stars, nebulae and galaxies.

* Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year: See below for details of this category.

The judges will also be awarding a number of additional prizes. If you would like your photo to be considered for these prizes please indicate as appropriate on the online entry form. These prizes are:

* People and Space: For astronomy photos that include people in a creative and original way. We will also award a runner-up for this category.

* Best Newcomer: This is for photographers who’ve taken up the hobby in the last year and have not entered an image to the competition before.The judges will give special consideration to those using simple and inexpensive start-out kit so please update your photo’s Flickr description to say what you’ve used. If you’re shortlisted for this prize, the judges would also like to look at a small portfolio of your other astroimages. This will help them to better assess the overall standard of your imaging and see how you’ve progressed and improved during your first year of astrophotography.

* Robotic Scope Image of the Year: This special prize is awarded by the judges for images that have been taken by robotic/remote telescopes and that have been processed by yourself. Any age entrant may enter, however