Welcome to the October 2008 Cloudy Nights Imaging/Sketching Contest poll!

Each month the best images selected from the individual Cloudy Nights Imaging and Sketching forums will be presented for the userbase to vote on. The monthly winner receives the coveted Cloudy Nights t-shirt! At the conclusion of the poll, the entry with the highest total will be the winner of the contest..

Please choose your favorite out of all the images. This poll will remain open through November 15th at midnight EDT.

Here are the entries for October!

Beginning Imaging's Finalist - Richard Scott:

M27 imaged through a C-11, auto-guided with a Meade DSI and PHD through an Orion ED80, and all of it pier mounted on a CG-5. I am using 5 11lbs counterweights on that poor mount!

30 subs at 60 sec. ea imaged at prime focus. Captured and dark subtracted in MaxIm DL, debayered and stacked in Nebulosity using colors in motion. And a bit of Photoshop

DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - cvedeler:

Horsehead nebula in Orion
Taken from Farnsworth Ranch AZ on Oct. 25th 2008.

Scope: Astro-Physics 160 EDF + AP .75 focal reducer
Mount: Astro-Phyiscs 900 GTO2
Filter: None
Camera: Canon 350xt modified

Exposures:
10 x 12 minute / 10 darks
5 x flat / 5 x bias

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Final processing in Photoshop 6.0, noise reduction with NEAT.

CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - J.P.M:

The Butterfly Nebula

Imaged 29.09.2008, from city center of Oulu, Finland.

Imaging data:
- Camera,
QHY8
- Filters,
Baader 7nm H-alpha, Baader 8,5nm O-III and Baader 8nm S-II
- Optics,
Tokina AT-X 300mm @ f2.8
- Exposures,
5 X 1200s H-alpha 3 X 1200s O-III
4 X 1200s S-II + flats and bias
- Guiding,
LX200 GPS 12" + PHD-guiding and Lodestar

Solar System Imaging's Finalist - rumples riot:

Jupiter and Io.
Taken 10 May 2008
Telescope: C14
Camera: Lumenera Skynyx 2-0
RGB 970 frames per channel

Sketching Forum's Finalist - markseibold:

3.3 Day old moon from a hill-top in Portland Oregon. A 19" X 25" pastel with the lunar disc sketched at a 12" diameter.

Good Luck to all our finalists!