Out of the Four prizes given in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, organized by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, two of them went to Ireland!
Michael O'Connell won the category prize for "Our Solar System". Michael's image, "Blue Sky Moon", is an unusual picture of the Moon - simple, well composed and framed, of outstanding quality and on a blue sky background.
The "Young Astronomy Photographer" section was won by Ireland, again: 14 year-old Paul Smith won this category with "Occultation of Venus". тАШIt was amazing to see Venus disappearing and then reappearing from behind the Moon! I just had to get a photo to remember it byтАЩ, said Paul.
John Murphy's image of the Seven Sisters was among the shortlisted ones.
The winning images will be part of an exhibition which will be on display in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich until the 10th January 2010, and also used on postcards for sale in the Royal Observatory shop.
The ten shortlisted images on the Sky News website
All entries on Flickr