Charlie Hein
Postmaster
Reged: 11/02/03
Posts: 7961
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: 4810
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: 5203
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: 187
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: 6780
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: 3016
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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: 939
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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scopesofter
newbie
Reged: 06/30/07
Posts: 3
Loc: Vista, CA, USA
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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. 
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Orion Premium 102mm refractor
Orion Sirius EQ-G Mount
Orion 4.5inch dobsonian
Nikon D40 SLR
Nikon 10x50 binocs
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Yossi Hury
member
Reged: 08/21/07
Posts: 13
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All are great pictures and it's tough to choose, but i"ll vote for the horsehead nebula.
yossi.
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star toucher
member
Reged: 12/16/06
Posts: 20
Loc: Eolia, Missouri
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As usual - all awesome...all winners in my book...
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Dark, Steady, Transparent Skies...
StarToucher
Celestron C-8
Celestron 80mm ST
Orion XT-10
Burgess 20x100 Binocs
Burgess Parallelogram Mount
Starmaster 14.5 DOB
ScopeBuggy
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lunar-tic
member
Reged: 06/28/07
Posts: 35
Loc: Louisiana
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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
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Glasses, OS cataract, OD Off-center lens implant
BARSKA 15x70
20x80 binocular
Celestron C5 CG3 mount
Celestron C6 Newt f/5 slide focuser on Polaris mount short wooden legs
Meade 80mm f/11 Altaz manual mount
Coulter 10" f/5.35 mirror being refigured
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zycattt
newbie
Reged: 03/31/08
Posts: 4
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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
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starquake
member
Reged: 02/02/08
Posts: 172
Loc: Nádasdladány
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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.
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"At night astronomers agree." /Matthew Prior/
"Astronomers, like burglars and jazz musicians, operate best at night." /Miles Kington/
10x50, 114x900, 300x1500
My astronomical sketches: Graphite Galaxy
Don't take my words too seriously, I might be wrong. And sorry for my English.
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Charlie Hein
Postmaster
Reged: 11/02/03
Posts: 7961
Loc: 26.06.08N, +80.23.08W
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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
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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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sunnynights
member
Reged: 08/26/06
Posts: 23
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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.
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THEPLOUGH
Sir Ducksalot
Reged: 01/11/08
Posts: 6222
Loc: Carlisle, Cumbria, ENGLAND
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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.... 
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Geoff...
Nexstar 8SE ...Plus bits & pieces
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Charlie Hein
Postmaster
Reged: 11/02/03
Posts: 7961
Loc: 26.06.08N, +80.23.08W
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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
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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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