| Charlie Hein |
| (Postmaster) |
| 04/12/08 07:31 AM |
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Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Welcome to the March 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 April 15th at midnight EDT.
Here are the entries for March!
Beginning Imaging's Finalist - Jim McGee:
Horsehead Nebula (IC434, B33)
41 x 600 second subs, ZS 80 ED II, DSI Pro II with Razorback cooler, Ha filter, CGE mount, guided.
Captured and processed in MaximDL (dark and flat calibration, deconvolution) and Photoshop (final resizing and histogram adjustment).
Images taken between the 9th and 13 of March, 2008.
Film Astrophotography's Finalist - RALF_T:
It´s -as you can see- M65 and M66. It´s a couple of shots, one with Kodak TP, hypersensitized, and a Fuji SHG 200. Both exposured for 40 minutes. Telescope was a 12"-Newtonian with 1,620 mm fl.
DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - soreneck:
M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy
Capture date: March 30, 2008
Scope: WO FLT 110 (TMB) @ f/7
Mount: HEQ5 Pro unguided
Camera: modified Canon 350, ISO800
Exposure: 84 minutes, 28x180sec lights, 10 darks, 20 flats, 10 flat-darks
Conditions: average seeing, average transparency, moderate light pollution
Processing: stacked in DeepSkyStacker, processed in PS CS2
CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Jim Lafferty:
IC 443, the Jellyfish Nebula, a galactic supernova remnant approx 5,000 light years distant in the constellation Gemini. Imaged over 4 nights on Jan 12-13-14-15, 2008, with my FSQ106N and ST2000xm (Astrodon Filters) riding on a Takahashi NJP. 200 minutes of Ha was used for the luminance, 100 mins of SII for the red channel, 200 min of Ha for the green channel, and 100 mins OIII used for the blue channel (all unbinned, 20 min subs). Total exposure was 6.6 hours.
Solar System Imaging's Finalist - HANTO:
Saturn, Feb/19/2008, 23:03 UT with storm in the STrZ.
Image is an an LRGB using the green channel as luminance and 1,25x of original size.
Good seeing conditions.
Camera: DMK21AF04.AS with Astronomik RGB filters.
Instrument: 8-in Newtonian @ f/29.
Sketching Forum's Finalist - Jeff Young:
M81
Sketch HB pencil on 160gm cartridge paper. Scanned and inverted in Photoshop. Scanner dropped the outer shading, so it had to be added back in using Photoshop.
Good Luck to all our finalists!
| m.r.memarian |
| (super member) |
| 04/12/08 11:51 AM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Superb images! Ultra tough Decision! each month is harder than last month.Finally,i decided to vote for IC 443, the Jellyfish Nebula!
| iceman |
| (Post Laureate) |
| 04/12/08 05:03 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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That horsehead from a beginner!?? WOW!
| CreationAstroGuy |
| (professor emeritus) |
| 04/14/08 12:19 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Saturn is amazing!
| Avinsen |
| (newbie) |
| 04/14/08 02:00 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Tough decision. Everyone did such a great job!
| Mike B |
| (Starstruck) |
| 04/14/08 02:20 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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If i can prove i'm a split-personality, can my other personality go back thru & vote? I'm sure he'll have as tough a time deciding as i did... these were truly excellent!
mike b
| Tim Shropshire |
| (newbie) |
| 04/14/08 02:34 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Wow, Tough Choice this Month! Congratulations to all, but it finally came down to deciding between Young or HANTO. I finally had to go with the latter. Tough Choice Indeed.
| caliu |
| (super member) |
| 04/14/08 02:58 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Leo pair is very very difficult with film, is magnific.
| darkstar528 |
| (Postmaster) |
| 04/14/08 03:48 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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I love the images!...But I lean to the sketchers! :-)
| Starnek |
| (member) |
| 04/14/08 05:00 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Very tough time deciding. In the end, I went with the Jellyfish. His color work and processing really made it stand out. I can't even think of working on one image for 2 hours, but 6 hours - thats really wanting to get it right.
| mmgoddard |
| (newbie) |
| 04/14/08 05:18 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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agreed with the comments, great job everyone! In the end, I too was struck by the color in the Jellyfish Nebula...
| cygnus72 |
| (sage) |
| 04/14/08 06:12 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Great job by everyone. As always, it's very difficult to decide. A question for Hanto, though: What make of Newtonian are you using? I've never seen an image of Saturn that sharp from a simple Newt.
| Marianne.F |
| (member) |
| 04/14/08 06:40 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Hard Decision.very beautiful images and hard work for each one.
Selection is too hard for me (between Sketch, Saturn & JellyFish) but My vote goes to IC 443, Jellyfish Nebula for amazing colors and hard work.
| Rich Prior |
| (super member) |
| 04/14/08 08:15 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Each is so beautiful in its own right... in its own genre. To pick one is to pick apples to oranges to cherries to pears to melons. Impossible. I hope we will continue to consider separating these genres for individual consideration. These submissions are so superlative!
| CapnJacob |
| (newbie) |
| 04/14/08 09:01 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Hmmmmm Horse Head...Jellyfish...Saturn.........Tooo tough
My eye has been turned tooo many times by color to change at this advanced age...lol... so, Jellyfish it is.... but that should in NO way detract from ANY of the entries...I could not even approach the ones that did not make it to the finals!!! GREAT JOB ALL!!
| Hoser |
| (Pooh-Bah) |
| 04/14/08 09:27 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Yup...film is very tough to do. Great job!
...Neil
| dvb |
| (different Syndrome.) |
| 04/14/08 09:36 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Had to go with M51 - amazing colour and detail with real-world gear (OK, gear kind of like what I've got!)
| Matildakt |
| (member) |
| 04/14/08 10:45 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Horsehead Nebula! Whoo Hoo! My fav!
| Archaeus |
| (newbie) |
| 04/14/08 10:50 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Wow!
I never vote on these. I always follow the email link, marvel at the beauty of the images and sketches, and find myself unable to pick. They're always fantastic. A real talented group of people hang out at this web site.
The images are equal to or better than what was in my Astronomy and Space Science textbooks from the 70's.
| sailor70623 |
| (scholastic sledgehammer) |
| 04/14/08 10:55 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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For a beginner that Horse Head is GREAT. However I went with the Jelly Fish because of the artistic work he did. He pulled off a great picture using the different colors for different filters and over layed them to come up with a true work of art. AND Ralph_T did great work with film. A very hard to get picture using film. I think we are forgetting how hard it used to be to get good astrophotos, before DSLR and CCD cameras.
| scopesofter |
| (newbie) |
| 04/15/08 01:38 AM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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All very impressive. I admit I didn't pick up on the use of film for M65/M66 (I just compared it with my own digital images.) Still, that jelly fish nebula... wow. Has to get my vote.
| Yossi Hury |
| (member) |
| 04/15/08 02:41 AM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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All are great pictures and it's tough to choose, but i"ll vote for the horsehead nebula.
yossi.
| star toucher |
| (member) |
| 04/15/08 07:19 AM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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As usual - all awesome...all winners in my book...
| lunar-tic |
| (member) |
| 04/15/08 06:32 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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KUDOS (is that a fast snack?) to anyone willing to try with film! I remembered my first attempt hand holding my Nikon FTn sans lens, Tri-X, and caught an eyepiece projected lunar image. It was UNITRON 60mm f:15 altaz refractor. I as about 24 and a newbie. By chance that was better, at least in memory, than any I have done with film since.
Ben Waranowitz
| zycattt |
| (newbie) |
| 04/15/08 10:37 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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As a total novice I don't think I am qualified to render an informed decision (that said, I voted for the Jellyfish nebula). I am, however, blown away by all the images. I too would love to know what kind of 8" newt took an image of such quality. Great job by all
| starquake |
| (member) |
| 04/16/08 04:53 AM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Wow, tough decision. If the M65/66 on film would be nominated in another month than the Jellyfish, it would be much easier. However, I gave my vote to the latter, it's absolutely an eye-candy.
| Charlie Hein |
| (Postmaster) |
| 04/16/08 06:37 AM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Quote:
Each is so beautiful in its own right... in its own genre. To pick one is to pick apples to oranges to cherries to pears to melons. Impossible. I hope we will continue to consider separating these genres for individual consideration. These submissions are so superlative!
We hear this thought pretty much every month... these images were chosen from each forum (genre) in a "semi-finals" poll taken just before this one. Therefore, what you are seeing here are the champions of each forum (genre).
Charlie
| sunnynights |
| (member) |
| 04/20/08 08:45 PM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Sorry I was away and could not vote. My compliments to the winner and to J. McGee for their especially superb contributions.
| THEPLOUGH |
| (Sir Ducksalot) |
| 04/25/08 09:57 AM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Did not get to vote I missed the dead line. Would have voted for jelly fish nebula though, the colors were fantastic... Is their any way of finding out in advance when voting is taking place....
| Charlie Hein |
| (Postmaster) |
| 04/26/08 06:47 AM |
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Re: Mar08 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!
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Hi Geoff - Here are the contest rules, which explain the contest and also define its timeline:
Quote:
Welcome to the Cloudy Nights Imaging/Sketching Contest!
Over the years, we’ve noticed we have some exceptional talent in our forums, and we’ve decided that we would like to show it off. Each month our readers will choose an overall winner, and that photographers image will be displayed on the front of CN for a month. The winner will also be awarded an official Cloudy Nights t-shirt courtesy of Astronomics.
How to enter:
Please visit our forums and submit an image/sketch in the appropriate forum, each forum will have a "sticky" thread called "Imaging Contest Submissions".
Images may be submitted to the contest threads in the following galleries:
Beginning Imaging
Film Astrophotography
DSLR and Digital Camera Astro Imaging and Processing
CCD Imaging and Processing
Solar System Imaging and Processing
Sketching
Moderators are listed by the forum name, and additionally their name or handle appears in green. Please contact them if you have any questions.
Each month, 6 images will be chosen from each gallery for the readers of that gallery to vote on. The winner will be placed in a site wide poll for our users to determine which is an overall winner.
See the individual forums and moderators for additional details and questions.
Rules are subject to change without notice.
Contest Rules:
1. Images submitted in a particular forum must reflect the focus of that particular forum.
Specifically:
- Entries in the DSLR forum must be images captured with a Digital SLR or digital camera
- Entries in the CCD forum must have been captured with a dedicated astronomical CCD camera
- Entries in the Film Astrophotograpy forum must have been captured with a film camera
- Entries in the Solar System forum must be of subjects within our solar system
- Entries in the Sketching forum must be an image of a sketch
- Entries in the Beginning Imaging can be of any astronomical subject as long as they are captured with a camera of some sort and do not violate any other rules.
2. In order to provide a level playing field and to encourage participation by novice imagers, entrants in the Beginning Imaging forum who win the semi-finals poll in the CN Imaging Contest a total of three (3) times - or who win in the finals regardless of the number of times they have won the semifinals - will have demonstrated sufficient proficiency at astrophotography to no longer be considered a "beginning imager". Such an imager will be considered to be a "graduate" of the Beginning Imaging Forum, and are encouraged to compete in the other imaging or sketching forums. The exception to this rule will be in the case of an entrant who wins the semi finals poll in Beginning Imaging as an uncontested entrant. An uncontested winner in the semi-finals will not have their win count toward their "graduation" as a beginning imager unless they also win the overall contest.
3. Entrants may submit an image for consideration in only one forum participating in the CN Imaging Contest. Entrants submitting images in more than one forum must choose a single forum to enter in or else all submissions from the entrant will be subject to disqualification.
4. All entries must be captured within the same season as the contest. For example, if the subject was Orion Nebula, than any photo captured during this particular winter (or period that it was visible) would qualify for the contest.
5. Please include the equipment used to take the image. Scope/Mount/Camera/Focal reducers/Barlows...whatever, as well as your name, the time / date and your location.
6. Entries are limited to absolute maximums of 100,000 bytes in file size and 800 pixels in width. Entries that do not meet this criteria will be disqualified.
7. Links to any other versions of contest entries are specifically restricted and will subject the entry to disqualification if included.
8. There will be a separate sticky thread for Contest entries. Please do not post comments in the entries thread its just for these wonderful images you all will be submitting.
9. The equipment must be yours. Doesn't matter what it is. 20" RC, ETX70, 2" Tasco or an 8" TMB.
10. You must be the owner or co-owner and operator. You must setup, align, take the exposures and process them yourself. No pay by the hour rent-a-scope images will be allowed.
11. A given user can only win in the finals once every 3 months.
12. Voting for the individual polls posted in the forums will be no later than the 5th day of the month. Forum voting takes place from the 5-8, finalist pictures / poll is posted no later than the 10th, and voting takes place from the 10-15. Finally winners are posted to the front page on the 16th of each month.
Charlie