Charlie Hein
Postmaster
Reged: 11/02/03
Posts: 7965
Loc: 26.06.08N, +80.23.08W
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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!
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Beginning Imaging's Finalist - Jim McGee:
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Film Astrophotography's Finalist - RALF_T:
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DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - soreneck:
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CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Jim Lafferty:
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Solar System Imaging's Finalist - HANTO:
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Sketching Forum's Finalist - Jeff Young:
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"He's dead, Jim - I'll get his wallet, you get his tricorder." - Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Weston CSC:
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m.r.memarian
super member
Reged: 10/01/07
Posts: 122
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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!
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NightSKY 20x80 Binocular(Broken)
SkyWatcher SkyLiner 200 (8",f/5.91 Dob)
10mm&25mm Skywatcher Super Plossls,Skywatcher 8-24mm Zoom,
Hyperion 13mm, Hyperion 8mm
Vixen 2X Short Barlow with T thread
Astronomik UHC Filter 1.25"
Orion SteadyPix, Green Laser Pointer
Celestron SkyScout IYA2009 Edition
Softwares : Stellarium , RedShift 6 , Celestia
Next Targets :Vixen LVW-17mm , LVW-22mm or Hyperions 
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iceman
Post Laureate
Reged: 03/07/04
Posts: 4811
Loc: Gosford, Australia
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That horsehead from a beginner!?? WOW!
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Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery
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CreationAstroGuy
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/18/07
Posts: 524
Loc: NW WA
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Saturn is amazing!
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Ryan Nelson
8" LX90 GPS UHTC
DSI with a 3.3 reducer
Eyepieces; 22mm Nagler, 16mm Meade Seires 5000, 26mm Meade Seires 4000, and a 9mm Burgess/TMB planitary!
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Avinsen
newbie
Reged: 06/29/07
Posts: 1
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Tough decision. Everyone did such a great job!
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Mike B
Starstruck
Reged: 04/06/05
Posts: 5205
Loc: shake, rattle, & roll, CA
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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
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"I have been paddling in the shallows of a great ocean of knowledge." - Sir Isaac Newton
* * 15" F4.55 Starsplitter Dob & a Denk II binoviewer * *
 Pacheco State Park
 Fremont Peak
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Tim Shropshire
newbie
Reged: 07/07/05
Posts: 1
Loc: Boulder, Colorado
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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.
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caliu
super member
Reged: 06/09/06
Posts: 189
Loc: Spain
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Leo pair is very very difficult with film, is magnific.
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http://www.caliu.fotografiaastronomica.com
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Takahashi FS 102 N
Astro Tech 66
Canon 5D MK2 mod.
Canon 450D mod.
Canon 70/200 L f/4
Canon EF 15mm fisheye
Canon EF 20mm f/2.8
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro
Meade DSI Pro II mono
Losmandy G11
HEQ5 Syntrek
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darkstar528
Postmaster
Reged: 03/06/07
Posts: 6784
Loc: Hodgenville, Kentucky, USA
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I love the images!...But I lean to the sketchers! :-)
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Blue skies,
Stephen "Darkstar" Ames
PST(#96038), VIXEN 8-24mm,CEMAX 2x Barlow, Thousand Oaks White Light Filter and a Meade Elec EP
CFI, CFII, MEI, working on EIEIO!
BAA Member
My solar site:
http://seemysunspot.com
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Starnek
member
Reged: 11/29/07
Posts: 10
Loc: New Hampshire, USA
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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. 
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Celestron CPC 1100, "Soulshine"
TMB-SMC 7mm & 9mm
Televue: Nag-T4 22mm, Nag-T5 31mm, Panoptic 41mm & Ethos 13mm
GSO Superview 50mm
MoonLite focuser
Denkmeier PowerX switch w/Filter switch
DewBuster
DewNot straps
Canon 18X50 IS Binoculars
Edited by Starnek (04/14/08 05:04 PM)
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mmgoddard
newbie
Reged: 02/11/08
Posts: 2
Loc: Portland, OR
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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...
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cygnus72
sage
Reged: 06/13/07
Posts: 245
Loc: State College, PA
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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.
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We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
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Marianne.F
member
Reged: 10/18/07
Posts: 10
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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. 
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Marianne
20x60 Russian Binocular
10-30x50 Zoom Binocular (Not good for astronomy)
Many books from PATRICK MOORE'S PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY SERIES (Springer)
I'm Going to buy my first Telescope ...
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Rich Prior
super member
Reged: 06/30/07
Posts: 147
Loc: Greenville, SC
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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!
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Celestron NexStar 8SE
Orion Vista 10x50
SkyScout
EyeBalls™
Border Collies rule!
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CapnJacob
newbie
Reged: 12/21/07
Posts: 1
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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!!
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Hoser
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 02/10/05
Posts: 1153
Loc: Boston, MA
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Yup...film is very tough to do. Great job!
...Neil
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www.flemingastrophotography.com
Brilliant diamonds in pea soup
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dvb
different Syndrome.
Reged: 06/18/05
Posts: 3019
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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!)
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"But seeing through a telescope is 50% vision and 50% imagination." - Chet Raymo
Skywatcher 10" f/4.7 Newt on Matilda
Celestron CF 9.25"
Vixen CF 8" f/4 Newt
Meade 8" SN f/4
Celestron C6 SCT
Skywatcher ED100
Skywatcher ED80
EQ6 Pro "Matilda"
AT Voyager
Canon 15x50is
Mallincam HyperColor Plus
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Matildakt
member
Reged: 01/26/07
Posts: 27
Loc: Somewhere, North Carolina
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Horsehead Nebula! Whoo Hoo! My fav!
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"It is what it is." --Lao Tzu
_______________________________
Naked Eye, well almost naked: eyeglasses! LOL
Orion Short Tube 80; Orion StarBlast Astro
Orion Mini Giant 8 x 56 Binocular
Celestron Skymasters 15 x 70
Celestron SkyScout
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Archaeus
newbie
Reged: 05/21/07
Posts: 3
Loc: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA
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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.
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sailor70623
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/12/08
Posts: 944
Loc: Ok.
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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.
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Corornado PST
LB 16" & 12"
Z 10"
LX50 8"
8" CPC
ETX127
102&90mm MAKs
80mm Richfield APO
70mm refractor
ETX60
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