Charlie Hein
Postmaster
Reged: 11/02/03
Posts: 7965
Loc: 26.06.08N, +80.23.08W
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Welcome to the August 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 September 15th at midnight EDT.
Here are the entries for August!
Beginning Imaging's Finalist - Jerry3672:
This is M8 taken with a Canon XSi 450D unmod. single 2min sub. LXD 75 SN8 Unguided.
Film Astrophotography's Finalist - Nightfly:
Here is an image I took in May of this year atop Schoodic Head, Acadia National Park, Maine. The lights in the lower left are from the city of Machias and Cutler, approximately 60 kilometers away.
Details as follow:
May 2/3, 2008
Pentax 67 with 105mm f/2.4 lens at f/5.6
1 hour exposure on E200 film pushed +2 stops
Basic levels and color correction adjusted in Photoshop.
DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Kentari:
The Corona with a Diamond from Siberia
Equipment and settings:
Canon EOS 40D with EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM and EF 1.4x Extender at 280mm f/5.6 on a photo tripod
ISO 400
24 exposures from 1/1600s up to 1/5s at 1/3rd stop interval with some frames missing due to movement. The last and longest exposure was made when the Diamond Ring was already on its way.
Combined in Photoshop CS2 using the Pellett Method
CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - bill w:
FS 102 @ f/6; CS 10nm Ha, H9, SX guider @ .5 sec thru 80mm f/5 guide scope
usual bortle white skies, fair seeing (~3 arc sec hfd) better for the Ha data
30x5 min Ha
7/28,8/1/08, los alamitos, CA
calibrated, combined, light DDP, .6 gama stretch, 1% contrast enhanced, HP filter in maxim, then to PS for light DSN reduction, cropped, reduced to 60%.
Solar System Imaging's Finalist - Bart Declercq:
My submission is the area from Rupes Recta to Werner on the moon.
The image is a mosaic of images taken using a Celestron C9.25 at F/16 (FL 3800mm), using an Imaging Source DMK31 camera, operating at 30fps through an Astronomik Red filter.
The image consists of about 6 separate AVI's, each originally 2000 frames long, multi-aligned in Registax selecting the best 256 frames per alignment point, with about 20-25 alignment points per AVI.
The image was taken from Haaltert, Belgium (N 50.885°, E 4.015°) on 2008-07-24 at approximately 3h50UT. The moon was about 45° high in the sky and the seeing was decent, though not very good (hence the use of a Red filter and the relatively short FL)
Sketching Forum's Finalist - WadeVC:
...here is my submission of the King of the Planets, Jupiter
Good Luck to all our finalists!
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Beginning Imaging's Finalist - Jerry3672:
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Film Astrophotography's Finalist - Nightfly:
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DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Kentari:
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CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - bill w:
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Solar System Imaging's Finalist - Bart Declercq:
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Sketching Forum's Finalist - WadeVC:
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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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astrodude
member
Reged: 10/05/05
Posts: 11
Loc: Sacramento, Ca.
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Great entries this time, well I guess that is said every time......
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Patrick Harrold
Tak FSQ-106n / AP900GTO cp2
http://www.astrodude.com
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InkDark
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/29/07
Posts: 1837
Loc: Montreal, Canada
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This makes it hard to choose...
I like a lot the image of the Moon. It is so crisp and clear, nice shot! I'll go with the colored picture of M8. Beginning imaging...that looks like a pro shot!
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Jimmy
If you could stop time, for how long would you stop it?
"...since that time, I have not complained about the weather one single time. I’m glad there is weather." – Alan Bean, Apollo 12
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KimB
super member
Reged: 02/28/08
Posts: 137
Loc: UK
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Very tough choice. Excellent photos.
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8" Meade lx90 LNT
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Davidgojr
sage
Reged: 08/09/08
Posts: 328
Loc: San Antonio, TX
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Spectacular images this time! It's always hard to pick a winner out of so many fantastic options...
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David
San Antonio, TX
Orion XT6, White Light Solar, H-alpha Coronado PST
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Dick Lipke
sage
Reged: 02/20/07
Posts: 282
Loc: Marine City,Mich.
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Why afer all this time dose a photo of the moon still seem as if you are looking at the first image ever sent back of another solar system?
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LX90 8",Cornado Max 40,Miyauchi 20x100 Bino's,and way to many eyepieces and filters,
Thousand Oaks 8" Ha filter
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Andrew Welsh
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/28/06
Posts: 2483
Loc: Rochester, NY
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It was a tossup between Kentari and Bart Declercq for me. Spectacular images. I also dug through the history, and both have won the site contest at least once in the last year 
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LX200 8" classic, f/10, Meade eq. wedge, .63x FF/FR
Canon 40D and 5D, unmodified
Canon EF 300/2.8L IS, 400/5.6L, 135/2L, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 35/2, 24-70/2.8L, and Peleng 8mm fisheye
Orion Apex 102mm (4") Mak-Cass
Pimped out with accessories and bling
My DSLR Astrophotography Webpage and photo bucket with full equipment list
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Jim Cook
member
Reged: 06/19/05
Posts: 13
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Quote:
It was a tossup between Kentari and Bart Declercq for me. Spectacular images. ...
I agree. It was definately a tie between these two for me, too. 
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Rob B
newbie
Reged: 09/26/07
Posts: 2
Loc: England, South Coast
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OK, time to come out of the closet, as it were: I have always found lunar images a bit boring, maybe because I have a head full of dark matter, energy, blah blah blah .... but .... just voted for your image, Bart. Breathtaking.
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Illinois
professor emeritus
Reged: 12/18/06
Posts: 693
Loc: near Chicago, Illinois USA
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ALL GREAT AND HARD TO PICK JUST ONE!
M8 is real good....not easy to take photo of clusters in M8!
Jupiter , 4 moons and stars look real.... sketching? Wow!
Years ago....easy to vote for the best........today is not easy! All super!
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Astronomer since 1975!
Orion 80mm ED refractor and
iOptron CubePro mount
Meade 16" Lightbridge Dobsonian
Orion 10" SkyQuest Classic Dobsonian
Tele Vue Eyepieces
Canon EOS XS 1000D
Orion Planetary 5 mm and
Orion Expanse Wide-Field 6mm eyepiece
4.5" F5 Reflector since 1982!
Orion Narrowband and SkyGlow filters
Member of IDA, let's fight light pollution!
Old Edmund 6"F8...donated to cousins
Super Polaris C8...donated to Byron Observatory in Illinois
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nathanwhitsett
newbie
Reged: 11/05/06
Posts: 2
Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio
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Hard to believe that the moon could look so 3-D ...all with a Celestron C9.25 ...this image is sharper than many 250 Mewlon lunar pics I've seen. But the solar image is just too pristine, and gets my vote.
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DoctorNoodle
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/14/07
Posts: 905
Loc: Lawn Guyland, NY
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Whoah, tough choices! The eclipse shot looks like an oil painting. The Moon close-up looks like it was taken from orbit! I'm still having difficulty believing that the image of Jupiter is a drawing, it looks like a photo!
Great stuff, all. Kudos to all the finalists!
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Orion Astroview 120ST and a bunch o' goodies to go with it
Alanoodle's Model Portfolio
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steveeb
sage
Reged: 05/06/08
Posts: 240
Loc: Murrieta, CA
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They are all great, but one stood out from all the rest. For me, it was easy to choose, but maybe it's because I'm from the old school of photography (hint  ) and I took photo like that when I was but a young man with my Minolta X700 (hint, hint).
Ok maybe I gave away too much info about my vote, but I'm not sayin' who I'm votin' for for prez... (*cough* Ob *cough* ama *cough)
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Steve
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StarsAbove
sage
Reged: 09/09/05
Posts: 224
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Grrr...you people are ALL so good. Every month it's virtually impossible to make a choice!
You are all winners!
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David
CPC 800 XLT
102mm f/7 Achromat
41º32'N 81º32'W
http://astro.lightarts.net
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robinsondd
sage
Reged: 05/28/07
Posts: 321
Loc: St. Mary's City, MD
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Excellent submissions all. So tough to chose but Bill W's ha image rocks for me.
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David Robinson
Lexington Park, MD
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"Why should we be in such a desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." Thoreau 1817-1862
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sunnynights
member
Reged: 08/26/06
Posts: 23
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Another wonderful set of images. Jerry's had a 3-D quality to it, Nightfly's artistry and sense of contrast was wonderful, Kentaris' was just plain awesome, Bill's showed the advantages of black and white, Bart's was among the best lunar photos I've seen here, and Wade demonstrated the advantages of sketching over other media. Everyone should get a t-shirt this month!
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mill1599
newbie
Reged: 11/12/07
Posts: 2
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Very hard to make a choice. They are all winners. Congratulations to you all!
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Keplero
newbie
Reged: 02/17/07
Posts: 4
Loc: Madrid, Spain
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Congratulations to you all!
But... wahhh, soooo crispy, near & beautiful moon :-O
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Tak TSA-102 APO
Tak EM-11 Mount
"If You Find This Universe Bad, You Should See Some of the Others" (PKD)
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Roy
newbie
Reged: 09/07/08
Posts: 1
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How can you choose from these wonderful photographs...not easy..all teriffic
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asinasina
newbie
Reged: 07/30/08
Posts: 3
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DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Kentari:
vote for this one~
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BrianFitz
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 07/17/08
Posts: 1692
Loc: Northern California
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I certainly agree with everyone that they are all great pictures and it's amazing that as many as I've seen, I still enjoy and appreciate the beauty of Space. They are all winners.
I haven't seen many shots like that of the Sun and corona. It is just spectacular and is differnent enough to be my pick.
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Fitz
Meade LX200R 10" F/10
Stellarvue Raptor 80ED
Meade 152ED APO US made
WO EP's / Televue diagonals
QHY8 / QHY5 / Philips SPC 900
20X80 Celestron / 7X50 Meade Binos
“Lots of "Dreams”
“The Skillful Illusionist Makes the Best Image"
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PureHeaven
member
Reged: 01/20/08
Posts: 71
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
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I really look forward to this contest every month- thanks to all the imagists for such a pleasant experience.
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Frank
Hot-rodded 10" Orion Dob,
31mm Nag
13 & 6mm Ethos
a few cigars and a comfy chair.
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boogie
member
Reged: 04/30/07
Posts: 73
Loc: Israel
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All are great.
Two are spectacular: The Eclipse shot and the Lunar shot.
The Eclipse shot is beautiful and unique. I've never seen anything like it in the contest, however, my vote goes to the Lunar shot. It's by far the best amateur Lunar shot I have EVER seen. So sharp and crisp ... looks like it's been taken by a satellite in orbit ... WOW!!!
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"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
"It's at times like this, when I'm stuck in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelegeuse about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was little."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen!"
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linear_shift
member
Reged: 04/10/06
Posts: 10
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They're all good but thats a sweet capture of the Trifid, and I have a soft spot in my heart for newbies (especially with a shot like that!) Keep up the good work Jerry3672!
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Meade LXD75 10-inch Schmidt-Newtonian
Celestron FirstScope 76mm
Orion 25x100mm Binos
Homemade Cylidrical Parabolic UHF/L-band Radio Telescope
Partially Homemade 610MHz Yagi Interferometer (8 meter baseline) Radio Telescope
Partially Homemade Cheap Portable Yagi TV Antenna Radio Telescope
Homemade 610MHz Half-wave Dipole Test Radio Telescope
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HalbertMusik
newbie
Reged: 10/20/06
Posts: 1
Loc: Germany
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Once again, a difficult choice to make - especially between the beginner's shot and the moon. I took the Moon as it is so crisp and well executed. Very well done to all of the entries!!!
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carlcat
sage
Reged: 11/26/07
Posts: 257
Loc: Northern California
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The moon shot is amazing but the Kenatari corona shot gets my vote for such a unique image.
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bc1954
member
Reged: 06/19/08
Posts: 11
Loc: North Central Alabama
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Sub-survey:
Which is tougher:
a) Creating these works of art? or:
b) Voting for just one of them?
(B.D.'s Moon shot got my vote.)
Clear Skies,
-Bruce
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Posted from the land of clouds and kudzu.
Orion XT-8i
Von Braun Astronomical Society: http://www.vbas.org/
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Jerry3672
Vendor - Quantum Astronomy Products
Reged: 01/20/08
Posts: 498
Loc: Lexington NC
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Thanks for all of the kind words.  It's an honor just to be next to these great images. I want to that all of the people in the beginners forum and all over CN for the help. My first deep sky shot from just a few months ago was... well, let's say not that good. This M8 was my first attempt at deep sky with a DSLR. Without all of the help from others I wouldn't have been able to get this Image. 
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Meade LXD75-SN-8, SN-10, C11
DSI Pro
Canon XSi 450D unmod
www.spike-a.com Bahtinov Style Focus Mask
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ngc2289
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/13/05
Posts: 1867
Loc: SouthTexas
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DARN!! I hate having to choose just one!! All the pictures are just so good!!
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Mike Traub(Mr. Congeniality): I've learned that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it!:Shipfitters mottos; Cut to suit, pound to fit, paint to hide!: If it dosen't fit get a bigger hammer!......Retired and BROKE!!!!!Refractors are like a fine wine!They just get better with age!!!!!! :SV102ED with Moonlite triknob focuser(Light Hawk):80mm f/11.25 homemade refractor(Star Sapphire):PST: New version Williams EZ Touch Alt-Az mount:Vixen green version GP .
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Starman1
Vendor - Scope City
Reged: 06/24/03
Posts: 12220
Loc: Los Angeles
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I couldn't choose, so my wife picked for me.
The black & white Lagoon is stupendous.
But that image of the Moon is crisp, crisp, crisp!
and the eclipse shot? Stunning.
And the drawing. Drawing? You're kidding, right?
Which did she pick?
Well Sagittarius is her sign.........
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Don Pensack
12.5" Truss Dob, 5" Maksutov, Fujinon Binos
Sustaining Lifetime IDA member
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Cow Jazz
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/24/03
Posts: 669
Loc: Toronto, Ontario
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Hey, folks, this is just getting rediculous! How come every
image lately has been this good? Some real talent out there, eh? :-) Had to go with the Moon on this bunch, though; terrific image.
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John aka: Byrdzeye
NYAA, Toronto
Observatorium Orionis
XT10i w/PT (push-to)
ED80 on AZ3 or LXD55 Frankenmount
350D w/17-85 IS & 70-200 f4 L
Taylor guitar & IPod
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WadeVC
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/02/05
Posts: 2831
Loc: Lodi, California,
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I too would like to thank everyone for their kind words and I am honored to be in the running this month. With the exceptional skill, time and equipment that is required for Astrophotography, it is a real thrill to be considered among what I consider the "Big Boys" with my digital rendering/sketch.
Thank you all again and best of luck to everyone!
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Orion XTi10 f/4.7
Orion XTi8 f/5.9
Meade NGC 70mm f/10
Orion UltraView 10x50 Wide-Angle Binoculars
My Sketch Gallery
My Astronomy Blog
A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top.
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boyd
sage
Reged: 11/30/06
Posts: 307
Loc: Florida
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good lord that sketch makes my attempts look like crayons on tissue paper 
Good luck to all, they are all fantastic. 
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XT8
ETX70AT
C80EQ
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Bart Declercq
sage
Reged: 01/21/07
Posts: 200
Loc: Haaltert, Belgium
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Congratulations, Kentari! The moment I saw your entry, I knew that I was batting for second place this time...
At any rate, the original (both larger in scale and area covered) of my moon shot can be viewed here.
--
Bart Declercq
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Kentari
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 11/19/06
Posts: 794
Loc: Belgium
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Thanks Bart! And of course everyone who voted for my picture!
I did get a bit nervous when I saw your moon shot... Just awesome. And you did compete for that first place! The other entries were also very good.
Clear skies,
Koen
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Darkstar 355 f/5 Dobsonian
Orion UK 8" f/4.5 Newtonian and WO ZS 80 FD on Losmandy GM8
Canon 20D DIY mod with Baader filter
A bunch of lenses: 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, 17-40mm f/4, 50mm f/1.4, 70-200mm f/2.8, 300mm f/2.8
www.koenvangorp.be
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Yossi Hury
member
Reged: 08/21/07
Posts: 13
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I would like to choose the moon picture although the solar eclipse is also fantastic.
Yossi Hury
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WadeVC
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/02/05
Posts: 2831
Loc: Lodi, California,
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Congratulations Kentari!
Once again, thank you to everyone who voted and your kind words!
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Orion XTi10 f/4.7
Orion XTi8 f/5.9
Meade NGC 70mm f/10
Orion UltraView 10x50 Wide-Angle Binoculars
My Sketch Gallery
My Astronomy Blog
A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top.
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bill w
Postmaster
Reged: 03/26/05
Posts: 6584
Loc: southern california
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doh
missed the vote
thanks for all the kind words
congrats kentari
spectacular image of a great event
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-bill w
nexstar 8 GPS
canon 300D, Toucam Pro II
SXV-H9C, H9, SX Exview autoguider, SX-AO
FS 102 (OLV), FS60 CSV, 8" LX200R, G 11
http://astro.whwiii.net/
image processing monitor calibrated to just differentiate darkest boxes:
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backyard lurker
member
Reged: 04/23/08
Posts: 14
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im pretty late getting to this thread but I have to say these photos are all great. What an amazing set. That corona picture is beautiful, one of my favorite pictures Ive seen.
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