Bulgarian photographer Mihail Minkov has taken top honors at the Smartphone Astrophotographer of the Year 2026 – a global competition exclusively dedicated to images captured with camera phones.
Captured near Antofagasta, Chile, the one-exposure image combines the Milky Way core rising over the Pacific coast with the towering sculpture Mano del Desierto – also known as "Hand of the Desert," shot at 20 seconds, f/16, ISO 2000.
