Next week the 2017 awards for Astronomy Photographer of the Year will be announced at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. But let's look back to the early days of this competition.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2010
An ancient tree is young compared to the center of the Galaxy. The Sun shines through dark clouds as a perfect ring in an annular eclipse. These are two of the dazzling images in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition 2010.

The winner was Tom Lowe's “Blazing Bristlecone".

Here's the gallery of all the 2010 competition winners.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011

More fantastic astronomy pictures from around the world were sent to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England in 2011. Exquisite skyscapes and landscapes, aurorae and nebulae, and the expanding shock wave of an ancient supernova explosion. Young astronomers continue to impress too.

The winner for 2011 was Damian Peach's "Jupiter with Io and Ganymede"

Here's the gallery for the winners of Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012
An exquisite whirlpool of two galaxies held together by invisible bonds was this year's winning image. And the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year captured the beauty of the Pleiades, a cluster of hot blue stars surrounded by a delicate haze of reflective dust. A feast for the eye.

The winner was Martin Pugh for his image of the M51 The Whirpool Galaxy.

Here's the gallery of all the 2012 winners.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013
Gasp at the Galaxy's starry glow. Be awed by aurorae. Marvel at meteors. Be dazzled by deep space. It's the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013 competition winners. The exhibition was in Greenwich, England, but the pictures are still online.

The winning photograph was Mark Gee's stunning "Guiding Light to the Stars", a panoramic view of the southern sky.

You can see all of the 2013 winners here.

In a few days I'll be seeing the winners of this year's competition and probably writing about it next week. Meanwhile how about some photos that made the short list?

Mr Big Dipper observes the Big Dipper (the Plough) from a glacier cave in Switzerland. (Photo: Nicholas Roemmelt (Denmark))

Crescent Moon over the Needles by Ainsley Bennett (UK). The crescent Moon with earthshine is setting over the Needles Lighthouse off the Isle of Wight, England.

And let's Ingite the Lights over Norway's beautiful Lofoten Islands. (Photo: Nicolas Alexander Otto (Germany))

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014
There's a serene aurora, both a violent Sun and an eclipsed one, a stellar nursery and a stellar graveyard, and many more superb pictures.

The winner was "Aurora over a Glacier Lagoon" by James Woodend.

Here's a gallery of the 2014 winners.

The overall winner this year was Artem Mironov (Russia) with his image of the The Rho Ophiuchi Clouds. The molecular cloud is a stellar nursery 460 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus (the ‘Serpent- Bearer’)